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Music, dance and meditation couldn’t change the outcome of Benjamin Goldberg’s battle with neuroblastoma, a rare nerve tissue cancer that took his life at age 8
But the healing arts did change Benjamin’s story — and all for the better
Through 3½ grueling years of surgery, chemotherapy and immunotherapy, Benjamin danced down hospital hallways, focused on deep breathing techniques and listened to playlists he’d created on his iPad to match specific treatment lengths
“His anxiety would just lift; his heart rate would fall,” said his mother, Wendy Goldberg of Virginia Beach. “It calmed him down and eased his pain during therapies that were making kids in rooms around us scream and cry. We came to realize that even if we couldn’t cure him, we could do everything possible to give him the best quality of life.”
Today, the Benjamin Goldberg Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for more widespread use of arts-based interventions, is partnering with the Sentara Health Research Center to study how art and music therapy can impact anxiety and depression in cancer patients
The study is among the first of its kind in the United States the study’s principal investigator. The yearlong project also will consider if such nonclinical activities can help reduce unplanned hospital visits and medical appointments
Sentara hopes to recruit 125 patients, ages 18 to 89, who are in treatment for head and neck or breast cancer. Participants will choose between sessions at Tidewater Music Therapy in Yorktown and self-guided visits or programming at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach or the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk
Each patient will complete six sessions or visits over a three-month period. Adding arts- and community-based activities to their schedules — a practice known as “social prescribing” — will not replace any traditional medical treatments or clinical plans
Researchers will evaluate each patient’s mental health before and after time spent immersed in musical or artistic endeavors, which aim to meet individual goals such as better processing emotions and managing stress
The team will use the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, known as HADS, which is a screening questionnaire for self-reported symptoms such as frequent feelings of tenseness or sudden panic (anxiety) or a loss of ability to find humor in life or enjoyment in once-fun activities (depression)
The HADS survey rates patients as normal, borderline or abnormal in terms of each disorder based on a total scoring system. An abnormal finding covers moderate to severe cases that are clinically significant
“We’re certainly hopeful that we’ll see improvements,” said Lolita Pittman, an oncology social worker involved in enrolling and tracking study patients. “By supporting the whole person emotionally, we want to build a sense of resilience, hope and connection with others.”
Anecdotally, Pittman and many other providers have seen that patients and caregivers who attend support groups or individual counseling; get needed help with finances, transportation or home health services; and have access to relaxing programs such tai chi, yoga and art, music or garden therapy seem better able to handle the strain of cancer treatment
Those improvements appear to carry over into physical health, Pittman added: “I’ve heard people say, ‘Oh, my blood pressure is doing better. I’m sleeping better. I’m not as tired.’ They’re taking coping skills and applying them in day-to-day life.”
Insurance typically does not cover arts-based therapies, although emerging research suggests they can not only boost quality of life but increase treatment compliance and offer a financial benefit to health systems. A recent Canadian report, in fact, found every dollar invested in social prescribing led to a $4.43 gain
Benjamin Goldberg, the only child of Jeff Goldberg, a radio DJ, and Wendy Goldberg, a lifelong dancer, was only 3 when he jumped up in excitement during a Super Bowl show by Madonna
In 2013, at age 5, Benjamin was diagnosed with cancer after experiencing fatigue, stomach pain and weight loss. He traveled between Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters in Norfolk and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York for multiple surgeries plus more than 15 rounds of chemotherapy and 18 rounds of immunotherapy
One operation alone lasted 13 hours, targeting a tumor that had wrapped all the way around Benjamin’s intestines. “He went through so much, but he rarely complained,” his mother recalled
While never enrolled in an official healing arts program, “Ben was his own music therapist,” Wendy Goldberg said. “He shared a Public Enemy song with his favorite nurse. He put on his signature headphones and danced around to Michael Jackson. He created joy. He made sure everyone saw him as more than just as a kid with cancer.”
A month before Benjamin died in 2016, he got to meet with Beatles drummer Ringo Starr on a Make-A-Wish trip to a concert in Arizona. In 2018, Wendy Goldberg created her son’s namesake foundation to help other patients in his honor
And in 2021, Goldberg faced her own terrifying diagnosis: Stage 4 anal cancer. Given a 30% chance of survival, she leaned on yoga, meditation, acupuncture and music during radiation and other therapies that have left her currently cancer-free
“I never wanted to give too much power or control to my disease,” she said. “I needed to allow other aspects of myself to shine.”
Along with heading the Benjamin Goldberg Foundation, Goldberg hosts a podcast about life after loss and has written a soon-to-be-released memoir on lessons learned during her journey with her child, “Mom’s Book: It Was Never About the Grief.”
Goldberg said she’s hopeful that Sentara’s study will ultimately help a wide range of patients. “Not just people with cancer, but so many others going through it, whatever ‘it’ may be,” she said. “I want this data to go far.”
Patients hoping to enroll in Sentara’s new oncology study should discuss the option with their care team. Anyone with questions can also contact principal investigator Jennifer May
Alison Johnson, ajohnsondp@yahoo.com
