Music therapy in cancer care: unravelling the complexities in LMICs

Abstract

The past decades have seen the field of oncology becoming far more receptive to integrative oncology. Music therapy has been used to mitigate symptoms and address psychosocial needs in people with cancer as an adjunct to the primary treatment. Providing patients access to sources of aesthetic support, like a deeply personal choice of musical playlist, may help cognitive recovery and elevate mood in patients undergoing treatment or recovery. Cancer care infrastructures around the world are heterogeneous and are more noticeable when it comes to evidence-based integrative oncology practices. In most lower and middle-income countries (LMICs), there is a complete absence of a professional body for music therapy, accredited training programs, and board-certified providers, as well as a lack of personalization in evidence-based approaches. The other critical challenge is the paucity of high-quality peer-reviewed randomized controlled trials evaluating indigenous music interventions. Developing high-quality, unbiased, blinded, randomized controlled trials using indigenous musical genres-based interventions is the best way by which we can find out the impact and potential of music in providing supportive care to cancer patients.