Online art therapy for breast cancer patients. A feasibility study on acceptance and psychosocial health during cancer treatment

Background: This study assesses psychosocial health and acceptance of intervention and scales for breast cancer patients in an eight-week online art therapy (AT) during cancer treatment. The study aims to demonstrate feasibility of the AT online intervention for the participating patients to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) on the same research question upon successful completion of the feasibility trial. Methods: In this randomized feasibility study at University Hospital Bonn, we compared a group of women with breast cancer receiving online AT while in oncological treatment (n=6) to a treatment as usual (TAU)control group (CG; n=6). We measured psychosocial health (anxiety, depression, distress, and quality of life) with the EORTC-C30, WHO-BREF, POMS, and the HADS. After each session, we also measured distress, happiness, and the experience of beauty. Acceptance of the intervention was assessed on three scales and with open questions. Results: The acceptance of the online AT was very good. Acceptance of scales and randomization was also given. Peliminary, descriptive statistics revealed trends for benefits of art therapy for all major clinical outcomes: Patients reported a decrease in anxiety and distress, and an increase in QoL (on EORTC-C30 and WHO-BREF), experience of beauty, and happiness after the intervention compared to the CG. Discussion: Online art therapy is feasible and offers broad and safe creative arts therapies and access for breast cancer patients undergoing oncological treatment, with no adverse events reported. Findings on group differences are preliminary and exploratory, given the underpowered sample size. An adequately powered RCT can follow to investigate the effectiveness of online AT for this patient group. Creation and narration in art, accompanied by an art therapist, may contribute to shift the experience of patients in cancer treatment from passive-enduring to active-creating.