The effect of massage therapy on fatigue after chemotherapy in gastrointestinal cancer patients.

INTRODUCTION

Gastrointestinal cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy usually suffer from fatigue, which may affect different aspects of their lives.

OBJECTIVE

The current study aimed to investigate the effect of massage therapy on fatigue after chemotherapy in gastrointestinal cancer patients.

METHOD: In this quasi-experimental study, 88 gastrointestinal cancer patients were randomly allocated into two groups of intervention and control. Patients received the chemotherapy for 3 h. The intervention group received four sessions of foot massage with an interval of 40 min during the chemotherapy. The massage duration was 7 min for each foot. Fatigue was measured using the visual analogue scale to evaluate fatigue severity just after and 24 h after the chemotherapy. Friedman and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to analyze the data.

RESULTS

The mean age of patients was 59/18 ± 9/35, and the most common type of cancer was gastric cancer (40%). There was a significant difference in the mean score of fatigue between the two groups immediately after (P > 0.001) and 24 h after chemotherapy (P < 0.001). In the intervention group, fatigue score decreased gradually (P = 0.031), while it increased in the control group (P = 0.001).

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrated that foot massage, as a simple method, could reduce chemotherapy-induced fatigue.