Music therapy is an easy, inexpensive way to help cancer patients cope with the emotional upset often caused by high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation, according to researchers from New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Patients who were visited by a trained music therapist reported less anxiety and better overall mood than patients who did not receive music therapy. The findings were published in the journal Cancer (Vol. 98, No. 12: 2723-2729).

"This is a non-invasive, pleasant intervention that people not only appreciate, but also benefit from," said lead researcher Barrie Cassileth, PhD, of Sloan-Kettering's Integrative Medicine Service. "It helps patients get through some very challenging situations."

Cassileth and her colleagues studied 69 adults who were hospitalized to undergo high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation, a common treatment for cancers such as Hodgkin disease, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. The procedure is highly toxic -- patients often experience profound fatigue, anorexia, fever and other unpleasant side effects – and because of that, emotionally grueling.

About half the patients were randomly assigned to receive live music therapy from a trained therapist, while the rest received no such therapy, though they were permitted to listen to music if they wanted to. The patients answered questionnaires about their mood before the stem cell transplant procedure and on various days afterward.

Patients who received music therapy reported 37% less total mood disturbance than the other patients, and 28% less anxiety.

The findings weren't surprising, Cassileth said, because there is a great deal of anecdotal evidence that music therapy has a positive effect. But it isn't as simple as just turning on the radio, or having a family member strum a guitar.

"The music therapists who see patients are not only musicians, they are trained counselors and they are very familiar with the kinds of problems that cancer patients try to cope with," said Cassileth. "They can be extremely helpful in communicating with cancer patients and also in working with patients individually to select the most appropriate types of music."

A patient in pain, for instance, might be best helped by just listening to relaxing music, while an anxious patient might be better served by banging a drum or making up lyrics to songs.

"That makes it quite different from turning on the radio or having a family member come and play, both of which can be very restful, but I suspect not nearly as much so as having a trained music therapist," Cassileth added.

Although not all medical facilities offer music therapy, it is becoming increasingly common in hospitals, rehabilitation centers and nursing homes, Cassileth said. Even centers that don't have specially trained music therapists may have volunteer musicians who, while not formal counselors, are skilled enough to help patients choose the best music for their particular situation.

But Cassileth stressed that music therapy is not a substitute for conventional cancer treatment. "It has no direct impact on the biology of the disease," she said. "It's a matter of helping [patients] cope with a difficult circumstance."