Mindful Movement Program for Breast Cancer Survivors
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Research shows that many breast cancer survivors (BCS) continue to experience psychosocial and physical effects of cancer long after treatment is completed. Examples include anxiety, depression, altered feelings about their body, worry about cancer returning, and pain. Research on either mindfulness or movement-dance therapy for BCS is limited. Studies that combine these two approaches for BCS have not been reported. The purpose of this pilot study is to test a new and innovative 12-week Mindful Movement Program (MMP) intervention combining movement and mindfulness techniques on quality of life (QOL) and mindfulness outcomes in older BCS who are 12 months or more past completion of treatment.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 We propose that BCS who participate in this 12-week MMP will show significantly more improvement in aspects of quality of life (QOL) and mindfulness than BCS who do not participate in the MMP. The areas we will study include physical, psychological, social, and spiritual well-being, and specific measures of upper body symptoms, fear about the cancer returning, anxiety, depression, and body image. The aspects of mindfulness we will study include attention, attitude, and intention.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This pilot study will develop and test a 12-week MMP intervention in 75 women who are BCS, age 50 and older (no upper age limit), at least one year past their initial diagnosis and completion of chemotherapy, biotherapy, or radiation therapy, and with no evidence of metastatic disease. BCS who consent to be in this study will be assigned by computer either to an experimental group (45 women who participate in the MMP), or to a control group (30 women who do not participate in the MMP). All participants will be asked to complete questionnaires three times: at the beginning of the study, and at 12 and 18 weeks. BCS in the experimental group will be invited to be in a focus group to give the research team feedback about their experience in the MMP. Control group participants who complete study requirements will be offered a complimentary 3-hour MMP class. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 MMP is unique in that there is no formal sitting meditation, prescribed body movements or postures. Movement is self-directed and mindful. With mindful verbal cues from the MMP leader, often with music, participants are encouraged to move their bodies in ways that are comfortable, fun, creative and natural to them. Participants become aware of their thoughts, feelings and sensations in the “present moment”, and express them, non-judgmentally, in self-directed movement. MMP also incorporates partner activities that encourage awareness of ways to maintain “self” while in relationship with “another.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This proposal is a result of multiple in-person meetings, conference calls, and email communications of the co-PIs; a Community Advisory Board (CAB); three consultants with expertise in mindfulness, dance therapy, and focus groups; and a mindful movement instructor with 25 years’ experience. The community co-PI, a clinical nurse specialist with community partner WISE &amp; Healthy Aging, which serves a medically underserved multiethnic population, initiated the study idea based on six years’ experience with BCS and with mindful movement. Subsequently a partnership was developed with the academic co-PI, a nurse researcher and oncology clinical nurse specialist with academic partner (Beckman Research Institute at City of Hope), with 30 years’ experience working with BCS and with whom a successful collaborative research intervention with BCS was just completed. The CAB was established in 2006 with target community members (BCS in Los Angeles), and breast cancer advocates, and has strongly supported the type of mindful movement proposed in this study. Two CAB members will be hired and trained as integral research team members for recruitment and results dissemination. The CAB will continue to meet regularly with the co-PIs throughout the study, assisting in data interpretation, results dissemination, and future planning. With this BCS involvement we expect BCS to benefit from this project through strengthened ties with the community and academic partner organizations, gaining experience in developing, implementing, and evaluating research, and for those individual BCS who participate in the MMP intervention, improvements in their QOL and mindfulness.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Upon completion of this pilot study we will have sufficient preliminary data to be able to submit a proposal for a BCRP CRC full award to test this MMP in a randomized controlled trial. After completion of the full award study we hope to develop a training program for lay instructors of MMP, so that they can lead similar groups in their own communities. In this way, the MMP would eventually become widely disseminated with the potential of affecting the QOL of many more breast cancer survivors.