Outpatient massage impact on symptom distress in cancer patients and caregivers.

e20651 Background: Massage as a manual therapy has shown benefit for symptomatic relief in cancer patients and their caregivers. We explored the impact of a single massage session on self-reported symptoms in an outpatient setting at a large academic cancer center. Methods: Data were reviewed from massage sessions (30 or 60 minute duration) at our Integrative Medicine Center outpatient clinic from May, 2011 through December, 2013. Participants completed a pre- and post-massage symptom assessment instrument, the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS; 10 symptoms, scale from 0-10, where 10 is most severe). Global symptom distress (GSD; range 0-100) was calculated as the sum of individual symptom scores. ESAS subscales analyzed included Physical Distress (PHS; range 0-70) and Psychological Distress (PSS; range 0-30). Data were analyzed examining the pre and post scores using paired t-tests. Results: Our analysis included data collected from 1478 massage visits for 555 participants (mean 2.7 visits/person) ...