title: Massage interventions and treatment-related side effects of breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Massage as a complementary and alternative therapy has been associated with enhancing health and coping with treatment-related side effects in patients with breast cancer worldwide. This systematic review examined whether massage interventions provide any measurable benefit in breast cancer-related symptoms.
  
  
  METHODS
  Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were searched for in PubMed, EMBASE.com and the Cochrane Library through June 2013. We evaluated the quality of the studies included by the Cochrane Handbook 5.2 standards and analyzed the data using the Cochrane Collaboration's RevMan 5.2 software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighteen RCTs with a total of 950 participants were included. Compared with the control group, our meta-analysis showed that patients receiving regular use of massage had significantly greater reductions in anger and fatigue symptoms. However, there were no significant differences in depression, anxiety, pain, upper limb lymphedema, cortisol and health-related quality of life.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The current evidence demonstrates that there was mild evidence that massage may be a useful intervention in alleviating negative emotions and fatigue in patients with breast cancer. More trials with longer follow-up are needed to determine the exact long-term efficacy of this class of complementary and alternative medicine on breast cancer-related symptoms and quality of life.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Psychology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yuan Q
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Ke H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Yu L
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Lai P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Hai Q
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008405:Massage; D011788:Quality of Life; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic