Abstract P2-12-03: A yoga program for breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy: Effects on quality of life and chemotherapy-associated symptoms

Abstract Background: Patients undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer (BC) report side effects such as nausea, fatigue and sleep disturbance, which can be exacerbated by stress and anxiety commonly associated with the diagnosis and treatment of BC. Effective management of these symptoms is limited. With yoga as an increasingly popular mind-body practice among Americans today, we conducted a pilot randomized controlled study to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of yoga on chemotherapy-related symptoms and quality of life (QOL) in patients receiving neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. Methods: Women with stage I-III BC scheduled to undergo neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy at Mount Sinai Chelsea Cancer Center were randomized to start yoga immediately (yoga group) or in 3 months (waitlist control group). The intervention consisted of 12 weekly 60-minute yoga classes. Demographic, clinical, ad treatment related factors were collected. All patients completed self-reported questionnaires including Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-Breast), Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and Pittsburgh sleep quality inventory (PSQI) at the start, 6 weeks, and 12 weeks after being randomized. Between group analyses were performed using two-sample t-test for baseline, 6 and 12-week time-points. Results: Among the 50 patients enrolled, median age at diagnosis was 51 (range 34-74). The patient population was diverse, with 36% (18) African Americans, 20% (10) Hispanics, 20% (10) Asians, 20% (10) white, and 2 patients of unknown race. Sixty-six percent of the patients had no prior yoga experience, and the average class participation rate was 55%. There was a significant reduction in reported nausea at 12 weeks in the yoga group compared to the control group (p=0.014). In addition, there were trends towards statistical significance in improvement in sleep efficiency (p=0.075) and overall physical well-being (p=0.090) at 12 weeks in the yoga group compared to the control group. Furthermore, in patients with poorer quality of life at baseline, there was a significant improvement in severity of depression (p = 0.050) at 6 weeks, and a trend towards improvement in overall physical well-being at 12 weeks (0.094) in the yoga group compared to the control group. Conclusions: Our study showed that weekly yoga participation is feasible in BC patients receiving adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Yoga intervention led to a significant reduction in nausea, as well as trends towards improvement in sleep efficiency, severity of depression, and overall physical well-being during chemotherapy. Larger studies are warranted to further assess the efficacy of yoga in reducing chemotherapy-associated symptoms in patients with early stage breast cancer. Citation Format: Tiffany Chen, Paula Klein, Tiffany Xing, Theresa Shao. A yoga program for breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy: Effects on quality of life and chemotherapy-associated symptoms [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-12-03.