Interactive Gentle Yoga in Improving Quality of Life in Patients With Stage I-III Breast Cancer Undergoing Radiation Therapy

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)