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Alessandro Comandini and Ottavio De Clemente
in NODES 26 →
2025
Over the past two decades, research into the therapeutic potential of art has expanded substantially, as highlighted in a comprehensive WHO report published in 2019. Advances in neuroscience increasingly demonstrate that mindful engagement with art and creative practices, such as Mindfulness-Based Art Therapy (MBAT), can play a significant role in both the prevention and symptomatic management of neuropsychiatric disorders, including those affecting cancer patients.
Neuroaesthetics, a discipline that bridges scientific and humanistic knowledge, offers an innovative, evidence-based, integrated, and personalized framework for cancer care. Current evidence has already led to the incorporation of MBAT into therapeutic pathways officially recognized by healthcare systems in several European and non-European countries.
Neuropsychiatric disorders are relatively common in oncology, manifesting both during active treatment and in the follow-up phase. The “chronicization” of cancer, driven by the advent of targeted therapies and immunotherapy, has rendered these comorbidities particularly challenging due to their detrimental effects on treatment adherence and overall quality of life. Notably, many neuropsychiatric symptoms reported in patients with Long COVID – such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, fatigue, and cognitive impairment – closely parallel those observed in long-term cancer survivors. Increasing evidence implicates low-grade systemic inflammation, and specifically neuroinflammation, as a central etiopathogenetic mechanism in these conditions.
This paper reviews the scientific evidence supporting the integration of MBAT into oncology practice as a sustainable, effective, and patient-centered approach for the management of neuropsychiatric disorders.
