title: The importance of spirituality in supportive care.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  It has been shown that the pineal gland plays a fundamental role in mediating either the spiritual perception or the anticancer immunity by stimulating the endogenous production of anticancer cytokine interleukin (IL)-2.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The present study was performed to evaluate the impact of a spiritual approach consisting of Kriya Yoga program alone or in association with melatonin (MLT) or low-dose IL-2 plus MLT on the survival time in a group of metastatic cancer patients with life expectancy less than 1 year.
  
  
  METHODS
  A case-control study was carried out in 240 patients (M/F: 146/94; median age: 62 years, range: 34-71, suffering from non-small-cell lung cancer or gastrointestinal tumors) who were subdivided into 6 groups of 40 patients, treated with supportive care alone as a control group, supportive care plus Yoga, MLT alone, MLT plus Yoga, inteleukin-2 plus MLT, or IL-2 plus MLT plus Yoga.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The best results in terms of increased survival time were obtained by the association between neuroimmunotherapy with MLT plus IL-2 and Yoga program (2 years), which was significantly longer with respect to that achieved by supportive care alone, Yoga alone, or IL-2 plus MLT alone (1 year).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study would suggest that a spiritual therapeutic approach may improve the survival time of untreatable metastatic solid tumor patients.
authors.affiliation: Psychological Service, Foundation IRCCS Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Messina
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Anania
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bonomo
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Veneroni
authors.forename: Antonietta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Andreoli
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mameli
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ortolina
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Fabritiis
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gaffuri
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Imbesi
authors.forename: Egidio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Moja