Trial reportJournal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology2026
Music Therapy Versus Cognitive Behavioral Therapy via Telehealth for Anxiety in Survivors of Cancer: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
Trial report in Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effects of Music Therapy on Physiological Indicators and Subjective Comfort in Patients Undergoing Large Medical Imaging Examinations: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of medical imaging and radiation oncology · 2026Pooled it
- The cortical morphology of cingulate cortex and microarchitecture of cingulum bundle correlate with cancer pain and anxiety in lung cancer patients.Brain imaging and behavior · 2026Article
- Toward precision music medicine in oncology care: reproducible, scalable and biomarker-driven interventions.EClinicalMedicine · 2026Review
- The Use of Tele-Music Interventions in Supportive Cancer Care: A Systematic Review.Brain sciences · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeAnxiety is prevalent, disruptive, and undertreated among survivors of cancer. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the first-line treatment, but not all individuals have access, respond to treatment, or prefer this option because of stigma. Music therapy is effective for short-term anxiety reduction, but it is unknown whether it is noninferior to first-line CBT for long-term anxiety reduction.
methodsThis comparative effectiveness trial randomly assigned English- or Spanish-speaking survivors of cancer to seven weekly telehealth sessions of music therapy or CBT. The coprimary end points were changes in the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) anxiety score at weeks 8 and 26. The noninferiority margin was 0.35 standard deviations, informed by a minimal clinically important difference (MCID) of 1.7 points. Secondary outcomes included fatigue, depression, insomnia, pain, cognitive dysfunction, and health-related quality of life.
resultsAmong N = 300 patients, 74.7% was female, 76.5% was White, and 19.0% was Hispanic. At week 8, the mean change in HADS anxiety score was -3.12 (95% CI, -3.59 to -2.65) in music therapy and -2.97 (95% CI, -3.45 to -2.50) in CBT; the between-group difference was -0.15 (95% CI, -0.78 to 0.49), within the noninferiority margin of 1.20 (
conclusionMusic therapy is noninferior to CBT for anxiety in survivors of cancer. Both telehealth interventions produced clinically meaningful, durable improvements in anxiety.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.