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Randomized trial of aromatherapy versus conventional care for breast cancer patients during perioperative periods

  • Clinical trial
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Breast Cancer Research and Treatment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Several studies focused on the effect of aromatherapy on mood, quality of life (QOL), and physical symptoms in patients with cancer. We compared the effects on QOL, vital signs, and sleep quality between aromatherapy and conventional therapy during perioperative periods of the breast cancer patients in this study.

Methods

Patients were randomly assigned in a 2:1 ratio to receive aromatherapy or usual care. The primary endpoint was QOL, which was assessed using the quality of life questionnaire QLQ-C30, Version 3.0 of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Study Group on quality of life. Secondary endpoints included the necessity of hypnotics, vital signs including blood pressure and heart rate and adverse events. In addition, we also summarized the patients’ perception of the experience from a free description-type questionnaire.

Results

A total of 249 patients had breast cancer surgery and 162 patients gave physician consent and were recruited; 110 were randomly assigned to aromatherapy group (eight patients showed incomplete EORTC QLQ-C30) and 52 to control group (one patient showed incomplete EORTC QLQ-C30). There were no statistically significant differences between the aromatherapy group and control group in the EORTC QLQ-C30 at the surgery day. As for the results of the post-operation day 1, trends for differentiations of physical functioning and role functioning were detected between aromatherapy group and control group, but the differences did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.08 and 0.09). There were no significant differences of systolic and diastolic blood pressures between aromatherapy group and control group (p = 0.82 and 0.68). There was no statistically significant difference in heart rates between aromatherapy group (70.6 ± 11.0 bpm) and control group (71.2 ± 9.8 bpm) (p = 0.73). Likewise, the rate of hypnotic use was not statistically significant (p = 0.10). No adverse events were reported after aromatherapy and all impressions from aromatherapy group were positive with descriptors such as relaxed, comfortable, and enjoyable being common.

Conclusion

The results showed no effects of aromatherapy on QOL, sleep quality, and vital sign. However, there was not any harm or adverse event for using aromatherapy. All impressions from self-reporting were positive such as relaxed, comfortable, and enjoyable by the aromatherapy group. Therefore, we can use aromatherapy during perioperative periods in order to meet the expectations of the patients.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported, in part, by a Grant-in-Aid from Okinawaken Ikagaku Kenkyu Zaidan.

Funding

This study was funded by Okinawaken Ikagaku Kenkyu Zaidan.

Author information

Author notes

    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Breast Surgical Oncology, Nahanishi Clinic Okinawa, Okinawa Japan.2-1-9, Akamine, Naha, Okinawa, 901-0154, Japan

      Kentaro Tamaki, Yoshihiko Kamada, Kano Uehara & Nobumitsu Tamaki

    2. Nursing Department, Nahanishi Clinic Okinawa, Okinawa Japan. 2-1-9, Akamine, Naha, Okinawa, 901-0154, Japan

      Akiko Komatsu Fukuyama & Kazuko Yamashiro

    3. Department of Internal Medicine, Nahanishi Clinic Okinawa, Okinawa Japan.2-1-9, Akamine, Naha, Okinawa, 901-0154, Japan

      Shigeharu Terukina

    4. Department of Clinical Research Center, Nahanishi Clinic, Okinawa Japan.2-1-9, Akamine, Naha, Okinawa, 901-0154, Japan

      Miwa Arakaki

    5. Department of Surgical Oncology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan. 1-1 Seiryo-machi Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8574, Japan

      Minoru Miyashita, Takanori Ishida & Noriaki Ohuchi

    6. Department of Pathology, Tohoku University Hospital, Sendai, Japan. 1-1 Seiryo-machi Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8574, Japan

      Keely May McNamara & Hironobu Sasano

    Authors
    1. Kentaro Tamaki
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    2. Akiko Komatsu Fukuyama
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    3. Shigeharu Terukina
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    4. Yoshihiko Kamada
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    8. Minoru Miyashita
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    9. Takanori Ishida
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    10. Keely May McNamara
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    11. Noriaki Ohuchi
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    12. Nobumitsu Tamaki
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    13. Hironobu Sasano
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    Corresponding author

    Correspondence to Kentaro Tamaki.

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    Conflict of interest

    All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

    Ethical approval

    All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Ethics Committee at Nahanishi Clinic Okinawa (NNCEC2013009, Okinawa, Japan) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

    Informed consent

    Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

    Additional information

    Kentaro Tamaki and Akiko Komatsu Fukuyama: Co-first author. Kentaro Tamaki and Akiko Komatsu Fukuyama contributed equally to this work.

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    Cite this article

    Tamaki, K., Fukuyama, A.K., Terukina, S. et al. Randomized trial of aromatherapy versus conventional care for breast cancer patients during perioperative periods. Breast Cancer Res Treat 162, 523–531 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-017-4134-7

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-017-4134-7

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