Massage Therapy Given by Caregiver in Treating Quality of Life of Young Patients Undergoing Treatment for Cancer

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To determine the feasibility and acceptability of conducting a massage intervention with childhood cancer patients and their primary caregivers.

II. To investigate feasibility of implementing a brief targeted massage training protocol with caregivers.

III. To identify barriers to recruitment, intervention adherence, and full study completion by consented families.

IV. To assess preliminary effectiveness of the massage intervention in reducing caregiver and child psychological distress (anxiety, depression, parenting stress) and promoting child health-related quality of life.

V. To compare outcome data between two intervention arms (TOUCH: child massage only; TOUCH+: Caregiver massage plus child massage) and between each arm and a wait list control condition.

VI. To utilize the pilot data in a development of contextually specific and targeted grant application for a fully powered randomized controlled trial of the efficacy of caregiver massage of children undergoing treatment for cancer.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To investigate reciprocal change in self-reported psychosocial functioning within the caregiver-child dyad from baseline to post-intervention.

II. To assess impact of massage intervention upon levels of a stress biomarker (cortisol) in caregivers and children and to assess associations of cortisol levels with self-reported psychosocial functioning.

OUTLINE: Patients and their caregivers are randomized to 1 of 3 treatment arms.

ARM I (WAITLIST CONTROL GROUP): Patients and caregivers receive standard of care and are offered the massage intervention after 8 weeks.

ARM II (TOUCH): Caregivers undergo a 60-minute training session on simple massage techniques, including the "Massage Toolkit," comprising Swedish Massage and Trigger Point Therapy Massage, at week 0 and a booster 60-minute massage training session at week 4 with a licensed massage therapist. Caregivers are instructed to massage their children for at least 3 20-minute sessions per week for 8 weeks.

ARM III (TOUCH+): Caregivers undergo a 60-minute training session on simple massage techniques, including the "Massage Toolkit," comprising Swedish Massage and Trigger Point Therapy Massage, at week 0 and a booster 60-minute massage training session at week 4 with a licensed massage therapist. Caregivers are instructed to massage their children for at least 3 20-minute sessions per week for 8 weeks. Caregivers also receive a 45-minute massage by the massage therapist.

Patients complete questionnaires at weeks 0, 8, and 16.

After completion of study treatment, patients and caregivers are followed for 8 weeks.