Music therapy in cancer patients: fact or fiction?

Cancer is a complex disease and the diagnosis of this commonly life-threatening illness is associated with fundamentally physical and psychological strains. In the last decade, there has been major progress in understanding the molecular and cellular pathways that are altered in several types of cancer. Currently, there are strong technological efforts to elucidate the role of diverse pathophysiological factors including but not restricted to cancer stem cells [1], miRNAs [2], mutations or single nucleotide polymorphism [3], and whole genome sequencing of circulating tumor DNA [4]. Overall, most oncologists and clinical researchers follow the encouraged major aims: to improve the diagnosis, prognosis and therapy of cancer. There are almost no cancer conferences and almost no clinical trials or papers published in high impact factor journals where novel molecular mechanisms, biomarkers or drug targets are not presented or tested. In this current era of molecular-centered cancer medicine, one should not ignore the fact that cancer medicine is much more than just fighting against cancer cells and molecules or prolonging the life spans for patients for a couple of months. In addition, besides physical quality of life, which is commonly measured in clinical trials by standardized questionnaires – more or less covering and reflecting real life situations – there is a lot of room to provide cancer patients with more harmonious and holistic care [5].

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