Receiving radiotherapy induces anxiety in at least 1/3 of patients who did not have a previously existing anxiety condition1. Female gender is a positive predictive factor for psychosocial decline during radiotherapy. One-fourth of patients disrupt their planned radiotherapy treatment course due to anxiety. Music therapy has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing anxiety when implemented in other medical settings including mechanical ventilation, burn debridement and venipuncture in pediatric patients. There have been some trials which have found a reduction in anxiety when pre-recorded music along with other relaxation techniques have been implemented during radiotherapy. This trial seeks to investigate the benefit of pre-recorded music alone in reducing anxiety experienced during the first radiotherapy treatment session in female cancer patients.
The primary hypothesis of the study is that listening to music will reduce anxiety in female cancer patients during the first radiotherapy treatment session.