Tracy Walton, LMT, MS, consults to hospitals and massage schools, does research and teaches "Caring for Clients with Cancer," continuing education courses offered nationally for massage therapists. She also offers a condensed course for spas, hospitals, and clinics in the basic contraindications for working with people with cancer. Back home in Boston, she has worked with Harvard Medical School's Osher Institute and the Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center, researching massage therapy for people with metastatic cancer. She has worked in private practice, hospital and spa settings since 1990, and taught physiology and pathology at the Muscular Therapy Institute in Watertown, MA for thirteen years, where she also served as the Academic Dean. She is the 2003 AMTA Council of Schools Teacher of the Year. Tracy holds a Master's degree in Cell Biology and Biochemistry. Currently she is working on a textbook, Medical Conditions in Massage Therapy, a resource to help therapists with clear, thoughtful decisions about massage contraindications in student clinics, spas, and other massage settings. In her work, she loves integrating the heart, science and soul of bodywork. She can be reached through her website, www.tracywalton.com, which includes a "help for Massage Therapists" page, current research on cancer and massage, and other resources.

These will open up in the same window:
A Study of Foot Massage and Cancer Symptoms
A Study on Massage and Symptom Relief
Companionship in Cancer Care
Developments in Oncology Massage
Learning From the Largest Study on Cancer and Massage
Massage for Caregivers
Medical Conditions in Massage Practice, Part II: The Client in a Physician's Care
Medical Conditions in Massage Practice, Part III: Interviewing for Medications
Medical Conditions in Massage Practice: Intake Forms and Questions, Part I
Meeting the Emotional Challenges of Oncology Massage
The First Oncology Massage Healing Summit

Clinical Thinking And Cancer
Although different types of massage therapy are often contraindicated for cancer, knowledgeable, skilled touch is in some form rarely contraindicated. 
By Tracy Walton 
CE Course:,  
Cancer and Massage Therapy:
Essential Contraindications (Part 1)
By Tracy Walton, MS, LMT
Cancer and Massage,
Part 2. Contraindications & Cancer Treatment.
by Tracy Walton, MS, LMT
mapping it out  50
A decision tree helps you navigate massage contraindications.
By Tracy Walton, MS, LMT