The healing effect of music in cancer patients: An Invocation to Apollo

Abstract

Introduction: Music interventions are frequently used for psychosocial support in addition to surgical
or pharmaceutical treatment, in patients with severe diseases. During the past two decades music therapy
is incorporated in the care of cancer patients, in different stages of the disease, both during diagnosis
and treatment.

Aims & objectives: The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding on the psychological and
physical advantages of music interventions in the treatment plans of oncological patients.

Methodology: For the completion of this literature review, online searches were performed using the
search engines in databases such as PubMed, Embase and Cinahl, Google scholar, in the months of
February 2010 to March 2021. From the online search carried out, 70 articles were found, 18 of them
were considered as eligible sources from the title and the summary presented, while the remaining 52
articles were rejected. Of these 18 articles 8 studies were isolated, having fulfilled the criteria of being
eligible for inclusion in this review. The types of the 8 studies included are: 1 Cochrane review, 1
quantitative comparative study, 1 quasi-experimental study, 3 Randomized controlled trials, 1 clinical
trial and 1 pilot research study and the quality of their results range from poor to good. The total number
(n) of the participants in the reviewed studies is 4350.

Conclusions: Music therapy supports treatment of cancer patients aiming at improving their emotional
and physical well-being. However, since the results are mainly based on self-reporting tools (possibility
of bias) further, more clinical research could be more enlightening in the future.