Medicine Hands

Massage Therapy for People with Cancer

Gayle MacDonald

• Publisher: Findhorn Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781844096398
• eBook ISBN: 9781844098545
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Diseases & Allergies

The field of oncology massage is maturing into a discipline with a deeper and deeper body of knowledge. The 3rd edition of Medicine Hands reflects this maturation. Every chapter contains updated information and insights into massaging people affected by cancer. New chapters have been added to cover each stage of the cancer experience: treatment, recovery, survivorship, side effects from the disease, and end of life. These new chapters and organizational structure will make it easier for the reader to find the information needed to plan the massage session for a given client. In addition, a new chapter has been added that focuses on the Pressure/Site/Positioning framework. This is the clinical framework around which the massage session is planned.

Chapter 1

Introduction

Cancer—A Part of Life

Cancer is not a modern disease. The attempts to understand and treat it did not burst onto the scene just recently. Cancer has been observed and described for millennia. Evidence of it has been found in human remains that go back many thousands of years. The oldest possible tumor was found by the famous anthropologist Louis Leakey in a fossil jawbone in Kenya that dates back 6,000 years. Chinese folklore makes reference to esophageal and throat cancer. Ayurvedic medical books describe tumors and how to treat them. Hippocrates, the Greek physician, described cancer as a condition of excess black bile, which was one of the four humors. At that time, illnesses were categorized in terms of excesses of various bodily fluids—blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and the most malevolent of all, black bile.

It was not until the Renaissance in the 15th century that more was known about the anatomy and physiology of the human body. This knowledge, often gained from autopsies, eventually brought an end to the ‘excess of black bile’ theory of cancer. By the 1700s and 1800s the foundations were being laid for the use of surgery to remove cancerous tissues. This was followed by greater understanding of cellular pathology. In the mid-1900s, the structure of DNA was discovered, which has moved science and medicine to its present understanding of cancer. Yet, as advanced as genetic and epigenetic knowledge has become, it is certain that there will be more chapters to the story of cancer.

Cancer in Modern Times

Cancer in modern times can be distinguished from the past by the dramatic rate at which the disease has increased. Since the end of WWII in 1945, there have been exponential rises in the incidence and death rates of some cancers, particularly in the developed world. Lung cancer is a prime example. In 1945, the death rate for men from lung cancer was 15 per 100,000. At its highest point in the early 1990s, it was around 90 per 100,000. Since that time, it has fallen off to 64 per 100,000.

Breast cancer is another disease that has leapt to the forefront since 1945. According to King et al. (2003), a woman’s lifetime risk of getting breast cancer in the 1940s was 1 in 22, whereas in 1975 it was 1 in 11 according to the American Cancer Society’s “Cancer Statistics 2013.” In 2013 the risk is 1 in 8.

Part of the increase can be explained by a greater life expectancy. In 1900, the average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47; today, in most of the developed world, life expectancies ranges between the mid-70s to the early 80s. As cancer is predominantly a disease of the aging, the longer people live, the higher the cancer rates will be. For example, according to “Cancer Statistics 2013,” an American woman between 40 and 59 has a one in eleven chance of developing cancer. Between 60 and 69, the probability rises slightly to one in ten. However, once a woman is over 70, the chance increases to one in four, and overall, the “birth to death” lifetime risk is one in three.

Aging does not account for all of the increase. Some of the rise can also be attributed to factors such as obesity, which is now one of the leading causes of cancer behind smoking, as well as exposure to toxic substances and radioactive sources. Changes in hormone levels due to overexposure to estrogen as a result of delayed childbearing, or to hormone-disrupting chemicals, are known contributors to cancer, as are bacterial, viral and parasitical infections.

While the rates of cancer have risen since 1945, so too have the number of people who survive cancer. In 1971 there were three million cancer survivors in the United States. Between 1975 and 1977, the SEER statistics calculated the 5-year survival rate for Americans was 49%; between 2003 and 2009, it rose to 66%. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2012 there were nearly 14 million Americans with a history of cancer, and by 2022 that number is expected to be 18 million.

i Declining death rates

While the rates of cancer incidence have increased, there is a decline in the death rates. American cancer death rates rose consistently through the 1900s, peaking in 1991 at 215.1 deaths per 100,000 in the population. The 2009 death rate, was 173.1 per 100,000. That’s a 20% overall decline in cancer death rates from 1991. The rate of decline for a number of major cancers—lung, colorectal, breast and prostate—was greater than 30% each.

“Cancer Statistics 2013,” Cancer: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians

Despite the improvement in mortality levels, the rate of cancer incidence remains sobering. At some point in their lives, usually later in life, a staggering number of people will be diagnosed with cancer. In the United States, more than a third of women and nearly half of men are affected (American Cancer Society). One in three Australian women and one in two men will develop cancer by the age of 85 (Cancer Council of Australia). And in the UK, more than one in three will be diagnosed at some point in their lives (Cancer Research UK)_. These numbers will only rise as the baby boomer generation ages. By 2050, the World Health Organization reports that the number of people older than 60 will triple by 2050, increasing from 605 million to two billion.

Future rates of cancer incidence will also be impacted by the present levels of obesity. In the 1960s, the US Department of Health and Human Resources reports that 13% of American adults were obese. By 2010 more than 35% were obese. Even more concerning, childhood obesity has risen from 10% in the 1980s and 90s to 17% in 2010. Overall there is presently a decline in cancer mortality, however, the obesity epidemic may be responsible for pushing it back up. A projection listed in the National Cancer Institute Factsheet on “Obesity and Cancer Risk” estimates that 500,000 additional cancer cases will occur in the United States by 2030 due to the trends in obesity.

Many thought that the conundrum of cancer would be solved by now. That was the goal in 1971 when Richard Nixon, then president of the United States, signed the National Cancer Act, which became known as the War on Cancer. This euphemism is a reflection on how modern-day thinking has militarized the relationship with cancer. However, the process of figuring out cancer is not a war; it cannot be eradicated with spectacular bombing raids or the use of a sledgehammer.

When readers stop and realize that cancer is not one disease but instead is hundreds of different diseases, it is little wonder that a cure still evades scientists. (The common cold is still a riddle, so it is not surprising that cancer is a dilemma.) The discovery of the proverbial ‘big one’ sometimes seems to be just around the corner; that one haywire gene, evasive enzyme, or biochemical cascade. The search, however, will require more plodding, one step after another. There will be tiny victories on good days, dead ends on other days. Finding a solution to cancer is not a sprint; it is an ultra-long-distance marathon.

33 Dresses

I met a woman at Goodwill two days ago who was buying 33 dresses to wear to 33 radiation treatments for breast cancer. As we spoke, she shared about living through this journey in a way that cancer cannot defy. I spoke to her about the idea of ‘the battle against cancer.’ She shared her thoughts that perhaps cancer offers an opportunity to prune and weed out the garden of our lives, to make room for that which is living.

Jacqueline George, LMT, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Unfortunately, the focus on solving cancer has been fairly single-minded. The majority of resources and time are being spent on curing or caring for cancer patients once it has occurred. While this is a very important piece of a complex puzzle, scant attention is paid to prevention. Establishing prevention as a major goal would require a wholesale change in the global economy, the health care paradigm, and lifestyle choices. Prevention is more than just an increased intake of vegetables, maintaining an optimum weight, or controlling stress levels. Truly slowing the incidence of cancer will require a monumental effort to return the planet to health, and so cancer will continue to affect the global population into the foreseeable future, pushing each of us to make our contribution to the care and well-being of our fellow citizens and their families.

i Vocabulary

Allied practitioners—Care providers separate from medicine, nursing and pharmacy.

Allopathic medicine—A term used by alternative practitioners that refers to mainstream medicine.

Alternative medicine—Therapies used in place of mainstream care.

Ancillary care—Another word for ‘allied’ care.

CAM—Complementary and alternative medicine.

Complementary therapies—Therapies such as massage, music, or writing, which are used alongside of mainstream medicine.

Conventional medicine—Another name for mainstream or allopathic care.

Holistic care—A system that attends to all parts of a person; physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual.

Integrative medicine—Combination of mainstream and CAM practices used side-by-side, but not necessarily in a team approach.

Interdisciplinary care—A team approach in which the various practitioners work together.

Mainstream medicine—A system that uses drugs, surgery, and radiation to treat illness.

Traditional medicine—Folk or indigenous medicine.

Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine

The aim, decades ago, was to cure a person’s cancer; to keep them alive. Little attention was paid to the physical, emotional, and social issues created by toxic treatments. Now, the vision of cancer care has changed. The focus has broadened to include not only eradication of the disease, but to improve quality of life, particularly since many varieties of cancer are being managed as chronic conditions, analogous to diabetes or heart disease. Cancer survivors not only want to be cured of their cancer, they also want to live well.

As part of enhancing quality of life, cancer patients have turned toward complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and are leading the way in its use. Health care providers are in the process of catching up to this consumer-driven trend so that they can advise their patients about the safety and efficacy of therapies. Many nursing and medical school curricula now include basic training in the area of integrative medicine. Journals aimed at nurses, nurse practitioners, and doctors regularly feature articles on patient use of CAM practices. The internet is teeming with information to help conventional practitioners understand complementary therapies.

These therapies include interventions such as exercise, prayer, yoga, aromatherapy, acupuncture, guided imagery, massage, diet, and nutritional supplementation. When used as an alternative therapy, these modalities are used in place of allopathic care, or in conjunction with it to promote a cure. When used in a complemen...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. Introduction: Cancer—A Part of Life
• 2. Understanding Cancer and Metastasis: Biology not Mechanics
• 3. Touch—Rx for Body, Mind, and Heart: A Review of the Research
• 4. The Side Effects of Cancer Treatment: Why The Need for a Less Demanding Approach
• 5. Pressure, Site, and Position: An Organizational Framework
• 6. Gathering Information: An Essential Part of the Massage Session
• 7. First Do No Harm: Adjusting for the Common Side Effects of Cancer Treatment
• 8. The New Normal: The Role of Massage During Recovery
• 9. Living Beyond Cancer: Considerations for Survivors
• 10. Side Effects of Cancer: Disease-Related Adjustments
• 11. Being is Enough: Comforting Touch at the End of Life
• 12. Massage as Respite: Caring for the Caregivers
• 13. Companions on the Journey: Who Gives? Who Receives?
• Index