Summary

People with oncological disease present, in addition to the side effects of treatments, uncertainty for the future, suffering, physical pain, anxiety, depression, loss of control and autonomy (Cardoso, Luengo, Trancas, Vieira & Reis, 2009), having this pathology impact on self–image, in interpersonal relationships, the meanings and the meanings of life (Visser, Garssen & Vingerhoets, 2010).

According to Meleis (2012) the nurse must interact with people, entered in your cultural context, they are in a situation of transition health/disease. The intervention established in this work was therapeutic massage, due to this help restore the physical and mental balance. The application of massage is performed upon the provision of hygiene and comfort and should be encouraged to use this additional practice as self–care strategy and harmonization.

We design a quasi–experimental study whose objective aims to evaluate the effect of massage therapy on mental health to a sample of cancer patients 31, 16 of the experimental group and the control group 15.

For the operationalization of the independent variable was used a protocol of massage therapy advocated by Tiffany Field e Hernandez–Reif and to evaluate the dependent variable, use the Mental Health Inventory (MHI), that showed good internal consistency.

This study found beneficial effect of massage therapy on mental health showed significant improvements (p < 0.001) in anxiety, depression, emotional control, losses on positive affection, in emotional ties, in distress psychological and psychological well–being.

We want with this study not only that health professionals use this intervention, and that these results encourage the scientific community, in carrying out future research in this pathology and other chronic diseases.