Evidence increasingly shows that cancer support services such as stress management and resiliency training, exercise, massage and music and art programs not only improve quality of life, but also reduce symptoms, increase patient satisfaction and impact health outcomes — along all stages of a cancer journey.
In addition, mindfulness techniques can decrease inflammation, lower stress, enhance immune function and improve sleep, which contribute to risk factors that make some people more prone to illness.
It's a notion that is not new to Beatriz Currier, M.D., medical director of the Cancer Patient Support Center and chief of Psychiatric Oncology at the Miami Cancer Institute, a part of Baptist Health. “Taking care of the whole patient is a critical variable in the formula for world-class cancer care,” she says. “You cannot just take care of the disease; you take care of the patient. If not, their health outcomes and quality of life will suffer.”
To address the physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of patients, the Cancer Patient Support Center offers a wide variety of programs, including mindfulness meditation training, which includes monitoring heart rate and blood pressure to help patients understand the mind-body control they have, as well as acupuncture and massage. Support groups, individualized exercise and nutrition programs, and rehabilitation and physical therapy are highly utilized by patients.
The Institute also offers comprehensive neurocognitive assessment and treatment in its Brain Fitness Lab, and a variety of longer-term cognitive programs, including a 12-week outpatient rehabilitation program. They also recommend an alternative virtual option, Brain HQ by Posit Science.
Among the newer services of the Cancer Patient Support Center are an Insomnia Clinic and Brace Clinic. “Up to 60 percent of patients with cancer develop insomnia,” says Constanza Martinez Piñanez, M.D., a psychiatrist and psychosomatic medicine physician with the Institute who leads the Insomnia Clinic.
“We use evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy to identify the thoughts, feelings and behaviors that are contributing to chronic insomnia and then work on techniques to help.” Most patients are able to significantly improve their sleep quality or sleep time within four to six sessions, she says.
At the Brace Clinic, patients who require special prosthetics or orthotics — for example, to provide support for compression fractures or a spine weakened by cancer or to lessen the chance of a fall for patients with foot drop — can now be evaluated and fitted on-site, rather than having to travel to an outside provider.
“In many cases, the sooner we can see these patients the better, so that we can prevent complications. Our goal is to focus on a patient’s physical function,” says Romer Orada, D.O., a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician with the Institute. “Between hospitalizations and so many appointments with specialists, we understand that the last thing our patients want to do is make another appointment off-campus. It’s a barrier to care. Easy access is making a difference.” The Brace Clinic is also available to pediatric cancer patients.
“We are constantly pushing the envelope and looking for innovative ways to impact our patients, as well as their families and our own staff,” Dr. Currier says. As important as innovation is, however, Dr. Currier stresses that the services offered by the Cancer Patient Support Center are evidence-based.
Recently, Dr. Currier worked with physicians at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York to compare the impact of music therapy versus cognitive behavioral therapy in cancer survivors with anxiety. The results, which will be published soon, showed that music therapy was as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy in controlling anxiety.
In a separate research project led by Dr. Currier in 2024, she examined the impact of the arts on health outcomes in cancer patients. The project resulted in the largest database of its kind (4,000 cancer patients) and showed that anxiety, pain and depression were significantly reduced among patients who engaged with musicians and visual artists during chemotherapy. The Institute’s award-winning Arts in Medicine program has eight contracted musicians and visual artists and two board-certified music therapists who perform and lead art activities in the lobby, waiting and treatment areas.
In the near future, Dr. Currier hopes to study whether there are predictors that can be identified to help determine if patients will respond better to certain genres of music or specific types of visual arts.
Grateful to contribute to the profound shift in the focus of supportive care programs, Dr. Currier and her team continue to search for better ways to enhance the lives of patients as they navigate their illness and to potentially lower their risk for another cancer diagnosis.
