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What is Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery (MBCR)?

By The Science of Mindfulness

Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery (MBCR)

Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery, also known as MBCR, is a group program for people affected by cancer, developed by Linda Carlson and Michael Speca at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary, Canada. It adapts the structure and practices of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) to the needs of people who are in treatment, recovering from it, or living with the lasting effects of cancer. The program is described in the book Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery1. Its core practices are mindfulness meditation and gentle yoga2.

Course Format: MBCR is taught in a group format over several weeks, with weekly classes and home practice. The earliest randomized trial of a mindfulness-based stress reduction program for cancer outpatients used a weekly 1.5-hour meditation group for seven weeks plus home practice3. In the later MINDSET trial, the MBCR arm involved 18 hours of professional contact and focused on training in mindfulness meditation and gentle yoga2.

Instructor Requirements: MBCR is taught by instructors trained in MBSR who have experience with cancer populations and a personal mindfulness practice.

Course Outcomes: In a randomized, wait-list controlled trial, 90 cancer outpatients with a wide range of diagnoses and stages were assigned to a seven-week mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction program or a waitlist. The treatment group had significantly lower scores on total mood disturbance and on depression, anxiety, anger, and confusion subscales, and fewer symptoms of stress. Overall mood disturbance fell by 65% and stress symptoms by 31%3.

The MINDSET trial was a multisite randomized trial of 271 distressed survivors of stage I to III breast cancer, who were assigned to MBCR, supportive-expressive group therapy (SET), or a one-day stress management control condition. Both MBCR and SET kept diurnal cortisol slopes closer to normal over time, whereas the control group’s slopes became flatter. Women in MBCR improved more on stress symptoms than women in either SET or the control group. In per-protocol analyses, MBCR also produced greater improvements in quality of life than the control group and in social support than SET. At the time, the authors described it as the largest trial of its kind2.

Clinical Populations: MBCR has been studied in people with a variety of cancers and at different stages, and most extensively in survivors of breast cancer. It is intended to complement medical care, not replace it.

Learn More: The University of Calgary’s MINDSET study page describes the trial. A longer interview with the program’s co-developer is available here: Interview with Dr. Linda Carlson.

This page is for general education and is not medical advice. Please speak with a qualified health professional about treatment options.

References

  1. Carlson, L. E., & Speca, M. (2011). Mindfulness-based cancer recovery: A step-by-step MBSR approach to help you cope with treatment and reclaim your life. New Harbinger.
  2. Carlson, L. E., Doll, R., Stephen, J., Faris, P., Tamagawa, R., Drysdale, E., & Speca, M. (2013). Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery Versus Supportive Expressive Group Therapy for Distressed Survivors of Breast Cancer (MINDSET). Journal of Clinical Oncology, 31(25), 3119-3126. https://doi.org/10.1200/jco.2012.47.5210
  3. Speca, M., Carlson, L. E., Goodey, E., & Angen, M. (2000). A Randomized, Wait-List Controlled Clinical Trial: The Effect of a Mindfulness Meditation-Based Stress Reduction Program on Mood and Symptoms of Stress in Cancer Outpatients. Psychosomatic Medicine, 62(5), 613-622. https://doi.org/10.1097/00006842-200009000-00004

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