Clinical trial · Interventional
Massage Therapy in Treating the Symptoms of Patients With Locally Advanced or Metastatic Cancer
Body-Based Complementary Therapies for Patients With Cancer
NCT00253708CI-TRIAL-00028952completedN/AResults postedClinicalTrials.gov clinicaltrialsProvenance
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
RATIONALE: Massage therapy may help relieve symptoms associated with cancer. It is not yet known which type of massage therapy is more effective in treating the symptoms of patients with cancer. PURPOSE: This randomized clinical trial is studying different types of massage therapy to compare how well they work in treating the symptoms of patients with locally advanced or metastatic cancer.
Conditions
Conditions (1)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cancer | Malignant Neoplasm | ALIAS | 0.90 |
Interventions
Interventions (5)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| management of therapy complications | Procedure | — | UNRESOLVED |
| massage therapy | Procedure | — | UNRESOLVED |
| pain therapy | Procedure | — | UNRESOLVED |
| psychosocial assessment and care | Procedure | — | UNRESOLVED |
| quality-of-life assessment | Procedure | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (3)
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- massage
- description
- Patients received 3 massage therapy visits from massage therapists in initial week with a duration of 15-45 minutes.NOTE: Intervention 'management of therapy complications' has not been included in any Arm/Group Descriptions. Patients were intended to receive pain therapy, psychosocial assessment and care, and quality-of-life assessment
- interventionNames
- Procedure: management of therapy complications
- Procedure: massage therapy
- Procedure: pain therapy
- Procedure: psychosocial assessment and care
- Procedure: quality-of-life assessment
- type
- ACTIVE_COMPARATOR
- label
- no-touch control
- description
- Patients received 3 no-touch therapy visits from massage therapists who provided no-touch without healing intention.Patients were intended to receive pain therapy, psychosocial assessment and care, and quality-of-life assessment
- interventionNames
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 18 Years
- Maximum age
- 120 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion criteria: * Solid cancer with evidence of metastases * Receiving treatment at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) * Must reside ≤ 25 miles from BIDMC Exclusion criteria: * Patient to sick to be interviewed * Absence of severe symptoms * Participating in another trial * Language barrier * MD does not provide permission * Expired prior to consent process
References
Publications (1)
- RESULTToth M, Marcantonio ER, Davis RB, Walton T, Kahn JR, Phillips RS. Massage therapy for patients with metastatic cancer: a pilot randomized controlled trial. J Altern Complement Med. 2013 Jul;19(7):650-6. doi: 10.1089/acm.2012.0466. Epub 2013 Jan 31. PMID 23368724