# A Short Mindfulness Program for Cancer Patients in Palliative Care: A Pilot Study and Reflection about the Faisability and Acceptability of Such Program

Katell Menard, Maya Corman, Michaël Dambrun

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

## To cite this version:

Katell Menard, Maya Corman, Michaël Dambrun. A Short Mindfulness Program for Cancer Patients in Palliative Care: A Pilot Study and Reflection about the Faisability and Acceptability of Such Program. EAPC Congress, Jun 2023, ROTTERDAM, Netherlands. Palliative Medicine, 37 (1S), pp.173-174, 2023, 10.1177/02692163231172891. hal-04980735

HAL Id: hal-04980735

https://uca.hal.science/hal-04980735v1

Submitted on 6 Mar 2025

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
# A Short Mindfulness Program for Cancer Patients in Palliative Care: A Pilot Study and Reflection about the Feasibility and Acceptability of Such a Program

Ménard K. ¹, Corman M. ², Dambrun M. ²

1. Cancer Center Centre Jean Perrin, Clermont Ferrand, France

2. Université Clermont Auvergne, Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitive (LAPSCO UMRS CNRS), France

## BACKGROUND

Mindfulness Based Interventions' (MBI) scientific assessment are exponential : programs like MBSR (Mindfulness Bases Stress Related) or MBCT (Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy) are validated with health benefits.

2 Meta analysis with women breast cancer ¹,² :
Compared to usual treatment, significant post-intervention effects of MBSR/MBCT for health related quality of life, fatigue, sleep, stress, anxiety and depression. Up to 6 months after baseline effects were significant for anxiety and depression.

## ISSUE

Mindfulness Based Interventions consist in 8 weekly group sessions of 2,5h and 1 day of practice. Associated with daily 45min practice. During Cancer treatment patients can rarely participate due to side effects of cancer treatments.

Scientific assessment's Bias: major interventions are post cancer treatments. Insufficient effects sides report. The specificity of mindfulness intervention was not detected when compared with other intervention. A few qualitative analysis ³.

## PURPOSES

Studying the feasibility, the acceptability and the impact of a short mindfulness program for Cancer patients in Palliative Care compared to a control group receiving Treatment as usual

## METHOD

Questionnaire pre and post intervention with MQoL, MPFI-24 (psychological flexibility), positive and negative affects, self-perception

Coupled with a Qualitative analysis of the interviews

2 Investigation Centers : Rehabilitation center and Cancer treatment center from March 2021 to December 2022

25 Patients' recruitment by nurses, oncologists, psychologists, supportive care team

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

## PRELIMINARY RESULTS (data collection in progress)

### Patients' characteristics :

Karnofsky Score = 70%
(SD 10,8)

M age = 58
(SD= 13)

8 hospitalized
17 ambulatory

17 Women

All disease stages III or IV

- Gynecologic Cancer (N=10)

- Urologic Cancer (N=4)

- Gastro intestinal Cancer (N=4)

- Cerebral Tumor (N=2)

14 Exp Group
11 TAU, Waiting List

## ACCEPTABILITY/FEASIBILITY

All patients assist to the three presential mindfulness sessions
During the 14 days experience, patients did in average 11 guided exercises by the digital platform

Satisfaction expression is 7,9/10 ("beyond all my expectations")
At the end of the experience, they all wish continuing mindfulness practice

2 patients in 14 give up the program because of intercurrent health events

## IMPACT OF SHORT MINDFULNESS PROGRAM*

- Negative affects decrease during the program in the experimental group while it increases during the study in the TAU group ($p < 0.03$, $\eta_p^2 = 0.31$).

- Psychological flexibility increases in both conditions (i.e. experimental group and TAU group; $p < 0.04$, $\eta_p^2 = 0.31$). As patients get closer to the end of life, the psychological flexibility score increases.

-No impact was found on quality of life, neither on positive affects

*Controlled for mindfulness practice

## CONCLUSION

A short mindfulness program face to face is acceptable by the patients and seems to decrease negative affects as long as

- Health care team's sensibilization to mindfulness : sharing theoretical and experiential knowledge

- Progressive mindfulness program encouraging regular practice

- Digital platform with audio guidance

- Face to face regular sessions with MBI teacher certified

### Références :

1- Heidemarie Haller, María M. Winkler, Petra Klose, Gustav Dobos, Sherko Kümmel & Holger Cramer (2017) Mindfulness-based interventions for women with breast cancer: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis, Acta Oncologica, 56:12, 1665-1676

2- Piet et al (2012) The effect of Mindfulness Based Therapy on Symptoms of anxiety and depression in adult cancer patients and survivors : a systematic review and meta analysis, J Consult Clin Psychol., 2012

3- S. Poletti et al (2019) Mindfulness-Based stress reduction in early palliative care for people with metastatic cancer: A mixed-method study, Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 47 (2019) 102218