interactive gentle yoga in improving quality of life in patients with stage i-iii breast cancer undergoing radiation therapy

Conditions: Anxiety Disorder; Depression; Ductal Breast Carcinoma in Situ; Fatigue; Stage IA Breast Cancer; Stage IB Breast Cancer; Stage II Breast Cancer; Stage IIIA Breast Cancer; Stage IIIB Breast Cancer; Stage IIIC Breast Cancer

Summary: this pilot clinical trial studies interactive gentle yoga in improving quality of life in patients with stage i-iii breast cancer undergoing radiation therapy. interactive gentle yoga may improve the quality of life in patients with breast cancer undergoing radiation therapy.

primary objectives: i. to determine the feasibility of implementing a 6-week biweekly yoga intervention delivered by multi-point videoconferencing in breast cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy. secondary objectives: i. to obtain preliminary data on changes in depression, anxiety, fatigue, sleep quality pre- and post-intervention in women with breast cancer undergoing radiation therapy. ii. to obtain preliminary data on acute effects of the yoga classes on fatigue and distress. outline: participants undergo 12 sessions of cancer-adapted integral yoga classes using an internet-based videoconferencing platform. integral yoga includes postures, deep relaxation, breathing practices and meditation to create a profound experience of peace and well-being. participants take part in study classes from home (or other location that is convenient for the participant and that allows them to access the internet-based classes) with two-way interaction with group instructors and members alike over 75 minutes twice weekly for 6 weeks during radiation therapy. participants are encouraged to complete additional yoga practice sessions outside of the twice weekly study sessions. after completion of study, participants are followed up at 1 week.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * participants must be newly diagnosed with a histologically or cytologically confirmed breast cancer stage i-iii (ductal carcinoma in situ \[dcis\] is allowed) * participants must have a score \>= 8 on the depression subscale of the hospital anxiety and depression scale \[hads\], indicating clinically significant depressive symptoms * participants must be: * \>= 2 weeks post-surgery for women who have had a lumpectomy, a lumpectomy with an axillary node dissection or a mastectomy without reconstruction or * \>= 4 weeks post-surgery for women who have had mastectomy with reconstruction * participants must be scheduled to begin the standard 6-week course of radiation therapy (rt) within 4 weeks * participants must have an eastern cooperative oncology group (ecog) performance status of 0 to 2 * for the duration of rt, participants must have access to an existing broadband internet connection and a computer (laptop or desktop; tablets are not sufficient) with a full-sized computer screen and the following specifications: * windows® 8, rt, 7 vista, xp or 2003 server or mac operating system (os)® x 10.6 (snow leopard®) or newer * internet explorer ® 7.0 or newer, firefox® 4.0 or newer, safari 3.0 or newer or chrome or newer (available for free download) * participants must be able to understand written/spoken english since the yoga classes will be taught in english * ability to understand and the willingness to sign an institutional review board (irb)-approved written informed consent document exclusion criteria: * participants who have practiced yoga regularly (defined as at least once per week on average) in the past 3 months * participants who have regularly (defined as 4 or more days per week) engaged in vigorous physical activity (i.e., causes heavy breathing, sweating, rapid fatigue; can be sustained for short periods, like running or swimming strongly) over the past 4 weeks * participants who are being treated with a shortened course of radiation therapy (i.e. "canadian" fractionation less than 5 weeks, partial breast radiation therapy)