Massage Program Assists Breast-Cancer Patients

A diagnosis of breast cancer is devastating enough, but low-income breast-cancer patients face unique challenges, including lack of health insurance as well as other social and economic barriers to care.

To assist that underserved population, a Washington D.C. massage school is using a grant from a national cancer foundation to launch a massage-therapy program for low-income breast-cancer patients.

The Susan G. Komen For the Cure foundation granted $75,000 to the Potomac Massage Training Institute in late 2006 for a pilot program to provide 1,000 massage sessions. The program launched in April and will run through March 2008. Area massage therapists are invited to participate in the program, which includes free training in massage for breast-cancer patients and $25 payment per session, up to two sessions per week.

Although massage therapy does not mitigate the spread or development of cancer, it has been shown in research to improve cancer patients' quality of life by reducing pain and anxiety.

The PMTI program is one of the first in the United States to provide massage specifically for breast-cancer patients. Practitioners staffing the new clinic are experienced massage therapists with advanced training in massage for people with breast cancer.

According to the school's director of research and project director for the Breast Cancer Massage Clinic, Martha Menard, Ph.D., clinic representatives are networking with physicians, nurse practitioners and social workers to spread word of the program. The response, added PMTI Clinic Manager Bruce Hunt, has been "almost overwhelmingly positive, with everything from, 'Yes we will refer,' to 'It's a great idea,' to 'Can you bring this to us, can you bring this to our facility?'"

The program has benefited clients and practitioners alike, Hunt said.

"To see people coming in—and they're dealing with a huge issue in their lives, and it has stopped their lives in some ways—to see them go from before-session to after-session and say, 'I've relaxed for the first time in weeks,' 'I feel like a new person,' 'I feel like I can keep going,' it's been a lifting-up for everybody.

"For practitioners, who do good work anyway, to be able to move into a field like this, to give so much to a needy population, it's been amazing," he added.

Participation in the program benefits practitioners professionally as well, Menard added. "They get to work with people who sometimes have very complicated medical histories, so they're certainly getting a chance to develop their critical thinking skills," she said.

The next training session for the PMTI Breast Cancer Massage Clinic is in November. For more information contact Martha Menard at mmenard@pmti.org or visit www.pmti.org.

—Karen Menehan