The Effect of Yoga on Nerve Pain Caused by Chemotherapy (Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy) (YCT)

February 4, 2026 updated by: Ting Bao, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

A Randomized Phase III Clinical Trial of Yoga for Chemotherapy-induced Peripheral Neuropathy Treatment (YCT)

The purpose of this study is to test whether yoga can reduce nerve pain caused by cancer treatment (chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, or CIPN). Participants will take one of three approaches:

  • Yoga classes
  • Educational sessions on the causes and impacts of CIPN, how yoga may help with CIPN, and how different therapies may help with CIPN
  • Usual care with standard-of-care medications for CIPN

The researchers will compare how these different approaches affect participants' balance, their risk of falls, and their quality of life. This study will also measure how much yoga can help the reduced sense of touch caused by CIPN.

The functional assessments Timed Up and Go (TUG) and Chair to Stand (CTS) can be safely completed either virtually and in-person and will be mandatory for all patients. The functional assessment Functional Reach Test (FRT) and Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST) assessments that can only be completed in-person are optional at these time points.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

227

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02115
        • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
    • New Jersey
      • Basking Ridge, New Jersey, United States, 07920
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Basking Ridge (Limited Protocol Activities)
      • Middletown, New Jersey, United States, 07748
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth (Limited Protocol Activities)
      • Montvale, New Jersey, United States, 07645
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Bergen (Limited Protocol Activities)
    • New York
      • Commack, New York, United States, 11725
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Suffolk- Commack (Limited Protocol Activities)
      • Harrison, New York, United States, 10604
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Westchester (Limited Protocol Activities)
      • New York, New York, United States, 10065
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
      • Rockville Centre, New York, United States, 11553
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Nassau (Limited Protocol Activities)

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • English-proficient men and women aged ≥18 years
  • Free of oncologic disease or or stable disease by clinical examination and history
  • Completed neurotoxic chemotherapy such as platinum agents, taxanes, vinca alkaloids, and bortezomib at least three months prior to enrollment
  • Diagnosis of CIPN based on symptom history, loss of deep tendon reflexes, or the presence of symmetrical stocking-glove pain, numbness, or paresthesia Grade ≥1 sensory pain based on the NCI Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) version 5.0
  • Self-reported moderate to severe CIPN pain, as defined by a score of 4 or greater on the BPI-SF average pain item over the past week
  • On a stable regimen (no change in three months) if taking anti-neuropathy or other pain medications and not taking acetyl-L-carnitine
  • Willing to adhere to requirement that no new pain medication be taken throughout the first 12 weeks of the study period
  • Willing to adhere to all study-related procedures, including randomization to one of the three arms
  • Patient answers "Yes" to at least one factor in the question: "Do you think your balance, gait, posture, alignment, or flexibility has been affected by your experience of CIPN?"

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients who have received physical therapy or practiced yoga for CIPN in the past 3 months. As patients who have received physical therapy or practiced yoga in this time period may already be experiencing its benefits, we will exclude such patients.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Yoga
Participants will receive twice weekly yoga over the course of 8 weeks.
Other: Yoga
Participants will have instructional yoga classes twice each week over the course of 8 weeks. Each yoga class will be 60 minutes, and it will be taught by an experienced yoga instructor. Participants will be provided with a home-based guided program for days classes are not held. Participants in the yoga group will also have the option to participate in a recorded final check-in session after they have completed their 16 yoga classes. The discussion facilitator will follow the Semi-Structured Interview Guide to further understand participants' experiences in the yoga group.
Experimental: Education control (EC)
Participants will receive twice weekly education over the course of 8 weeks
Other: Education control
Participants will have educational sessions over 8 weeks. The sessions will be on the causes and impact of Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (CIPN), how yoga may help with CIPN, and how different therapies may help with CIPN. To encourage participation and adherence, patients in the EC group will receive sixteen free yoga sessions after completing the study. Patients in the EC group will be asked to not go for their own yoga classes locally until their participation in the study is completed.
Active Comparator: Usual care (UC)
8 weeks of usual care
Other: Usual care
Participants in the usual care control group will complete the same assessments as the other two arms. To encourage participation and adherence, patients in the UC group will receive sixteen free yoga sessions after completing the study. Patients in the UC group will be asked to not go for their own yoga classes locally until their participation in the study is completed.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
measuring Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy pain severity after Yoga
Time Frame: up to 24 weeks
as measured by the Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form (BPI-SF) compared to EC and UC arms at week 8 response choices of 0 ("no pain") to 10 ("pain as bad as you can imagine").
up to 24 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Collaborators

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Ting Bao, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

October 29, 2021

Primary Completion (Estimated)

September 30, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

September 30, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 4, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 4, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

November 16, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 6, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 4, 2026

Last Verified

February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 23-517
  • R01CA251470 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

The Dana-Farber / Harvard Cancer Center encourages and supports the responsible and ethical sharing of data from clinical trials. De-identified participant data from the final research dataset used in the published manuscript may only be shared under the terms of a Data Use Agreement. Requests may be directed to: Sponsor Investigator or designee. The protocol and statistical analysis plan will be made available on Clinicaltrials.gov only as required by federal regulation or as a condition of awards and agreements supporting the research.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Data can be shared no earlier than 1 year following the date of publication

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Contact the Belfer Office for Dana-Farber Innovations (BODFI) at innovation@dfci.harvard.edu

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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