Washington, Aug 10 : Listening to music can alleviate anxiety in cancer patients and may also have positive effects on mood, pain and quality of life, according to a new study.

In the Cochrane systematic review, the researchers focused on trials with patients with any kind of cancer who were offered music or music therapy sessions.

They analysed evidence from 1,891 patients taking part in 30 trials.

Thirteen trials used trained music therapists while in the remaining 17 trials patients listened to pre-recorded music.

The results show that compared to standard treatments, music reduced anxiety considerably based on clinical anxiety scores.

The results also suggest that music therapy may increase patients' quality of life.

There was some benefit in music for mood and pain, although not depression. Smaller beneficial effects were seen for heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure.

"The evidence suggests that music interventions may be useful as a complementary treatment to people with cancer," said lead researcher Joke Bradt of the Department of Creative Arts Therapies at Drexel University in Philadelphia, US.

"Music interventions provided by trained music therapists as well as listening to pre-recorded music both have shown positive outcomes in this review, but at this time there is not enough evidence to determine if one intervention is more effective than the other," he added. (ANI)