A Philosophical Evaluation of the Role of Yoga in the Treatment of Cancer

Abstract

Cancer is one of the most significant health challenges of the contemporary world, not merely because of its biological complexity but also because of the profound psychological, existential, social, and spiritual suffering experienced by patients and their families. Modern oncology has achieved remarkable advances through surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and precision medicine; nevertheless, cancer treatment frequently involves fatigue, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, pain, reduced functional capacity, uncertainty, and diminished quality of life. In this context, yoga has increasingly attracted scholarly attention as a complementary mind-body intervention. The present paper offers a philosophical evaluation of the role of yoga in cancer care by bringing classical Yoga philosophy into dialogue with contemporary evidence-based medicine.

The paper argues that the philosophical significance of yoga lies primarily in its holistic understanding of the human person. Patañjali's conception of yoga as citta-vṛtti-nirodha, together with the ethical disciplines of yama and niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi, provides a framework for understanding health not merely as the absence of disease but as an integrated condition involving bodily regulation, mental equilibrium, disciplined awareness, and existential orientation. Contemporary research provides encouraging evidence that yoga may reduce cancer-related fatigue, anxiety, psychological distress, and some treatment-related symptoms, and may improve aspects of quality of life. However, the evidence remains heterogeneous, and recent high-quality reviews emphasize uncertainty concerning long-term outcomes and methodological limitations. Importantly, there is currently no adequate scientific basis for claiming that yoga independently cures cancer or should replace evidence-based oncological treatment.

The paper therefore proposes a complementary and integrative model of cancer care in which yoga functions as an adjunct to conventional oncology. Its philosophical value lies not in promising miraculous eradication of malignancy but in supporting the patient's physical resilience, psychological balance, self-awareness, dignity, agency, and capacity to live meaningfully amid illness. Such an interpretation is both philosophically defensible and compatible with contemporary evidence-based medicine.