Jason Delaforce Mobile Massage

Oncology Massage is a specialised form of Remedial Massage in the truest sense of the word, as remedial means to remedy. Of course the suggestion is not that cancer can be cured by massage, however a client’s experience of their symptoms may be relieved by skilfully applied massage techniques.

How effective can it be?

The largest study into massage for cancer patient symptom control has been one from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre (USA). This study surveyed just under 1,300 patients over a 3 year period, and showed the benefits of massage in relation to symptom control.

It resulted in:

• 47% improvement in pain levels


• 42% improvement in fatigue levels


• 59% improvement in anxiety levels


• 51 % improvement in nausea


• 48 % improvement in reports of depression other symptoms such as dry mouth, shortness of breath, memory problems or disturbed sleep improving by 48%.

Outpatients improved about 10% more than in-patients with benefits persisting including no return toward baseline scores over a 48 hour follow-up.
The full study can be viewed here in detail: http://www.jpsmjournal.com/article/S0885-3924(04)00262-3/abstract

The gentle approach of OM can also give great cross-over benefits to other conditions, such as Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy, Motor Neurone Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, etc.