Smith, M. C., Kemp, J., Hemphill, L. & Vojir, C. P. (2002). Outcomes of therapeutic massage for hospitalized cancer patients. Journal of Nursing Scholarship 34, 257–262.

A trained registered nurse (RN) provided 15 to 30 minutes of the light Swedish technique of effleurage and petrissage three times per week in the patients' hospital beds; sessions were 24 hours apart and at different times of the day and evening. The control group received 20 minutes of deliberate, focused communication. Outcomes were pain, sleep, symptom distress, and anxiety.

• The sample was comprised of 41 patients with cancer.
• Patients had leukemia, lymphoma, lung, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, head and neck, breast, and skin cancers.

• Inpatient
• Veteran’s administration hospital
• Midwestern United States

Patients were undergoing the active treatment phase of care.

The study used a quasiexperimental design, with pre- and postintervention comparison groups:  one arm received massage and the other was the control arm.

Verran and Snyder-Halpern Sleep Scale (VSH)

Sleep quality remained the same.

• The study had a small sample size and lacked random assignment to groups. Cohorts were treated sequentially.
• The sleep scale was not tested for validity and reliability with polysomnography.
• The RN must be trained in massage techniques.