Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40908656›Full record

Trial reportIntegrative cancer therapies

Metabolic Effects of Healing Touch During Cervical Cancer Treatment: An Exploratory Analysis.

Herman A van Wietmarschen, Estela Area-Gomez, Martin Picard, Michael J Goodheart, Anil K Sood, Susan K Lutgendorf

Abstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
In one paragraph

Trial report in Integrative cancer therapies. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Herman A van WietmarschenLouis Bolk Institute, The Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0003-2225-0337
Estela Area-GomezUniversity of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Martin PicardColumbia University, New York, USA.
Michael J GoodheartUniversity of Iowa, Iowa, USA.
Anil K SoodMD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA.
Susan K LutgendorfUniversity of Iowa, Iowa, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-3793-5881

Funding

UNIVERSITY OF IOWA CTSA FOR PEDIATRIC RESEARCHUL1RR024979 · NCRR · UNIVERSITY OF IOWA · PI ROSENTHAL, GARY E · 2007 to 2011
$31.8M
NCRR NIH HHS UL1 RR024979NIH HHS P20AT75601NIH HHS R21AT0095801
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionCancer treatment with chemotherapy frequently leads to side effects such as fatigue, pain, nausea, and anxiety. Healing Touch is a non-invasive complementary therapy often used by cancer patients to address side effects of treatment. To better inform the use of complementary therapies, there is a need to understand the biological mechanisms underlying the effects of such treatments.

methodsThis study included 44 patients with cervical cancer undergoing chemoradiation randomized into a Healing Touch (HT), a relaxation training (RT) and a usual care (UC) group. An exploratory metabolomics analysis was conducted on plasma samples taken at baseline, 4, and 6 weeks of ongoing treatment (4 sessions per week).

resultsA multivariate data analysis revealed no significant separation in metabolites between the 3 groups. Univariate data analysis revealed changes in metabolites between baseline and week 6 within each group. The main findings were lower levels of acylcarnitines, bile acids and proline in the HT group, higher levels of fatty acids in the HT and RT groups, and lower levels of kynurenine and quinolate in the UC group. The network of correlations between metabolites shows clear differences in correlations between steroids, fatty acids, sphyngomyelins, amino acids, and γ glutamyl peptides between the 3 groups, suggesting a more flexible and resilient metabolism in the HT and RT groups compared with UC.

conclusionThis first exploratory study investigating metabolic effects of Healing Touch in cancer patients indicated suggestive differences in metabolic signatures which need further investigation in a larger study.

Indexed as

Therapeutic TouchUterine Cervical NeoplasmsAdultAgedChemoradiotherapyFemaleHumansMetabolomicsMiddle AgedRelaxation Therapycervical cancerchemotherapyhealing touchintegrative oncologymetabolomicsrelaxation training

Identifiers

PMID40908656
PMCPMC12411712

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.