Pre-Surgical Qigong Therapy for Women With Breast Cancer

The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the United States has increased dramatically in the past 10 years. Nowhere is this trend more apparent than when one examines CAM use by patients diagnosed with cancer. As with the general population, patients with cancer typically use CAM-based modalities alongside their conventional cancer treatments. Patients are often seeking a holistic approach to managing and preventing disease. Although most patients will combine alternative approaches with conventional medicine, some patients do in fact decline curative conventional treatments in favor of more non-toxic alternative approaches. One such approach that patients combine with conventional medicine or use in place of conventional medicine is qigong. Qigong is a bioenergy therapy with a long history of therapeutic use for many diseases, including cancer. Preliminary experiments and a review of the literature show that qigong might improve the outcome for cancer patients. However, none of this research has been confirmed in the peer-reviewed Western scientific literature. Although it is unlikely that EQT will result in significant decreases in tumor size, patients are using qigong either as a complementary approach, and sometimes even in place of conventional medicine, it is, therefore, important for us to determine whether there is any merit to this treatment modality. The goal of this pilot trial is to examine one form of medical qigong (external qi therapy (EQT)) to determine feasibility. In an exploratory nature we will also examine any changes in tumor size in women with breast cancer who are awaiting surgery.