title: Effect of Therapeutic Touch in Patients with Cancer: a Literature Review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) techniques has been growing. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine places therapeutic touch (TT) into the category of bio field energy. This literature review is aimed at critically evaluating the data from clinical trials examining the clinical efficacy of therapeutic touch as a supportive care modality in adult patients with cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, Scholar Google, and Science Direct) were searched from the year 1990 to 2015 to locate potentially relevant peer-reviewed articles using the key words therapeutic touch, touch therapy, neoplasm, cancer, and CAM. Additionally, relevant journals and references of all the located articles were manually searched for other potentially relevant studies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The number of 334 articles was found on the basis of the key words, of which 17 articles related to the clinical trial were examined in accordance with the objectives of the study. A total of 6 articles were in the final dataset in which several examples of the positive effects of healing touch on pain, nausea, anxiety and fatigue, and life quality and also on biochemical parameters were observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on the results of this study, an affirmation can be made regarding the use of TT, as a non-invasive intervention for improving the health status in patients with cancer. Moreover, therapeutic touch was proved to be a useful strategy for adult patients with cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, International Branch, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tabatabaee
authors.affiliation: Department of Management, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mansoureh Zagheri
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Tafreshi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rassouli
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research Center, Faculty of medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyed Amir
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Aledavood
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, School of Paramedical, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Hamid
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: AlaviMajd
authors.affiliation: Traditional Medicine Department, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyed Kazem
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Farahmand
mesh_terms: D000072716:Cancer Pain / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D019124:Therapeutic Touch
keywords: cancer; literature review; therapeutic touch; touch therapy