Guided Imagery Up-Regulates Anti-Cancer Defenses in Breast Cancer Patients

Research Topics

Sunday, 18 January 2009

Researchers from United Lincolnshire Hospitals and Queen's Medical Centre in the UK performed a randomized, controlled trial to evaluate the immuno-modulatory effects of relaxation training and guided imagery on 80 women with breast cancer.

Patients underwent chemotherapy followed by surgery, radiotherapy, and hormone therapy. Those in the intervention group were taught relaxation and guided imagery. Patients kept diaries of the frequency of relaxation practice and imagery vividness.

On 10 occasions during the 37 weeks following the diagnosis, blood was taken for immunological assays CD phenotyping the following: T cell subsets (helper, cytotoxic), natural killer (NK) and lymphokine activated killer (LAK) cells, B lymphocytes and monocytes; cytotoxicity: NK and LAK cell activities; cytokines interleukin 1 beta (1beta), 2, 4 and 6 and tumour necrosis factor alpha.

Significant between-group differences were found in the number of CD25+ (activated T cells) and CD56+ (LAK cell) subsets. The number of CD3+ (mature) T cells was significantly higher following chemotherapy and radiotherapy for patients in the relaxation and guided imagery group.

Using a median split, women who assessed their imagery ratings highly had elevated levels of NK cell activity at the end of chemotherapy and at follow-up. Significant correlations were obtained between imagery ratings and baseline corrected values for NK and LAK cell activity, and IL1beta. Relaxation frequency correlated with the number of CD4+ (T helper) cells, the CD4+:8+ (helper:cytotoxic) ratio, and IL1beta levels.

The study concludes that relaxation training and guided imagery beneficially altered putative anti-cancer host defenses during and after multimodal therapies.

Citation: Eremin O, Walker MB, Simpson E, Heys SD, Ah-See AK, Hutcheon AW, Ogston KN, Sarkar TK, Segar A, Walker LG. Immuno-modulatory effects of relaxation training and guided imagery in women with locally advanced breast cancer undergoing multimodality therapy: A randomised controlled trial. Breast. 2008. Nov 11. [Epub ahead of print]

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written by Donna, January 20, 2009

To all who read this ....believe it. I was diagnosed with invasive Cervical CA a clear sentence ahead of me and I chose to trust in my own body wisdom rather than the Chemo, Radiation or Surgery. The number one change....daily meditation, surrender and conscious thinking. Within two months I could feel a change and now 5 years later at 44 I have a new baby, the youngest of 5 and live with gratitude daily. Please listen to your heart and know it can be done.

Best wishes to all who have the courage to take control, to create an awareness, create peace and make changes that will last a long lifetime!!

Love

Donna

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written by Suzanne ib Lerner, PhD, January 21, 2009

That's wonderful to have research confirming what we have known all along, that imagery is an amazingly powerful support for health at every level of our being. Are there specifics in terms of what kind of imagery they used? I know some people recommend very specific biologically accurate imagery, and others recommend more general diffuse, heath inducing imagery. Belleruth, do you know what specific imagery they used in this study? I'd love to know.

And yes, Pete Seeger, Aretha Franklin, how beautiful to see us "two leggeds" getting things right!

PS What's Black & White and "read" all over?
Our new 44th President of the USA and his inaugural address!

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written by Colleen Carroll, January 21, 2009

Hi Belleruth, I am a Yoga Therapist, beginning support groups for women with Breast Cancer, and I will be using guided imagery and Restorative Yoga. I wonder if you could clarify the following exerpt from the above article: "Using a median split, women who assessed their imagery ratings highly had elevated levels."

Does this refer to a rating system given to the participants during the study, where they themselves evaluate the vividness of their images?

Many thanks,
Colleen Carroll, CYT

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written by Elizabeth Danu, January 23, 2009

So great to see research backing up what I have believed with my whole heart to be true! I used imagery in conjunction with an aggressive treatment regimen and other complementary therapies for an aggressive Stage 3 Inflammatory Breast Cancer, and watched the 11 centimeter sheet across my breast shrink to less than 1 centimeter by the time I had surgery. One of my doctors called my response to chemotherapy "phenomenal".
This research confirms that continuing to use imagery could help me stay well, and has renewed my commitment to doing it.
I passed the article along to my survivor friends, both living with cancer and those who are NED. Thank you so much for publishing this!
Elizabeth Danu

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written by Belleruth, January 25, 2009

I'll be getting the entire article, which will hopefully tell us more about the kind of imagery that was used for this study. And yes, the median split result means they separated the findings into two groups for this analysis: those who rated their imagery highly and those who didn't. Those who rated it highly had stronger results in NK and LAK activity. But this finding doesn't tell us much - did they rate the imagery highly because it worked well, or vice versa? And it begs the question of why and how it worked well. So that intriguing finding merits further inquiry - it doesn't tell us much yet. The big news is the general finding that the imagery really did beef up immune activity, as measured on several important parameters! To be continued. I'll post more as I learn it.

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written by Belleruth, January 25, 2009

To further answer the questions about what kind of relaxation/imagery intervention this was, here is what the article says:

"Patients in the experimental group were taught progressive
muscular relaxation and cue-controlled relaxation training by
means of five individual live training sessions and audio-recordings
for regular home practice. The patients were also given advice
about guided imagery. This entailed visualizing host defences
destroying tumour cells, or in some other way improving health,
whilst relaxed. Women received a portfolio of cartoons depicting
this process and they were encouraged to generate their own visual
images. Patients were asked to record each day the number of times
they had listened to the recording and to rate imagery vividness
(scale of 1–10)."
The contact email address for this article is This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it /'; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text83045 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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written by Kathleen , January 26, 2009

What a wonderful study -- thank you so much, BR, for keeping us informed of this.
Thank you also, BR, for your imagery which has helped me with PTSD, weight loss, chemo, surgery, sleeplessness, grief, self confidence, relaxation. I've been listening to you since 1994. I listen to your affirmations for general wellness in the car. Thank you so much for changing the face of medicine and for helping me through my life's challenges.

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