by Elizabeth Galamba
Oncology Times 48(2):p 30, February 2026. | DOI: 10.1097/01.COT.0000000000000200
On the spectrum from rigorous hot yoga to meditative savasana, oncology yoga is the intersection of modern science and traditional yoga practice. Working in tandem with treatment plans, this yoga practice addresses and repairs the lingering physical and emotional side effects of chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. With support from oncologists, researchers, and survivors, yoga should be recommended to cancer patients as commonly as prescribing a painkiller, sleeping medication, anti-inflammatory, or laxative.
“Oncology yoga should be prescribed as soon as the diagnosis is given, not wait until other treatments have started, and there is a really good reason why,” Tari Prinster, Founder of yoga4cancer, said. “It is really important to understand that there is a psychological shift when someone is diagnosed and then put into treatment. They become a patient, where things are done to them. That is psychologically very difficult, and if you can give them something to do for themselves, it is far more beneficial.”
In a recent interview, Oncology Times spoke with Prinster and Josi Kytle, Executive Director of yoga4cancer. Kytle explained that yoga4cancer is a non-profit that has trained and deployed “over 3,000 teachers globally over the last 20 years… teaching in hospitals, cancer centers, homes, online, and doing research projects,” to bring the research-proven benefits of oncology yoga to patients regardless of ability, diagnosis, or treatment.
“Everybody’s cancer is different, and everybody’s yoga practice is different,” Prinster said. “There are things you should do, and things you can do at whatever level or intensity. The movement we do can be done rigorously, or it can be done very, very gently, but it’s that movement that should be done. We try to cater to the individual and let them take away what they need to on a particular day and for their particular cancer.”
Oncology yoga considers side effects caused by treatments—bone fragility, neuropathy, lymphedema risk, surgical limitations, immune suppression, trauma, and emotional distress—that may be neglected or worsened by other yoga practices, and modifies practice to safely and effectively treat patients. To do this, instructors are not only trained in adapting postures and trauma-informed teaching, but they are also able to screen for medical history to provide the best individualized experience for every student, and this approach is working.
“I have thousands of patients and survivors that I’ve worked with, who have given us testimonials, and I have seen it with my own eyes,” Prinster said. “I’ve seen somebody who is afraid to move come into yoga class, and you can see what’s happening. They’re becoming more and more unable to move, unable to go through their daily functioning, and within a very short period of time, they begin to open up, begin to move, begin to feel better. It’s a no-brainer, if you talk to someone who is experiencing it. The research is there.”
The American Society for Clinical Oncology, the American College of Sports Medicine, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and the American Cancer Society all provide recommendations and guidelines on integrating yoga into the standard of care for cancer patients. These guidelines are backed by a catalogue of research studies that have shown yoga to support a healthy immune system, strength and flexibility, balance and mobility, psychological well-being, a healthy weight, and sound sleep. The studies also show that yoga reduces blood sugar and cholesterol levels, fatigue, stress, and anxiety—improving quality of life overall.
“When I first started doing this, years and years ago, talk therapy was one of the things that was being offered to cancer patients and survivors, particularly breast cancer, and so, therapists were trained to do group therapy sessions centered around cancer,” Prinster said. “I went to various hospitals and asked to speak with their patient advocates who were therapists and were doing talk therapy sessions. I told them that I was going to do some yoga classes. As soon as I did that, and they told their talk therapy classes, guess what happened? My classes filled up because people were sick of talking about their cancer and hearing other people talk about their cancer. They wanted to do something. They wanted to move.”
Participating in two or three yoga sessions a week is an easy, sustainable way to meet the American Institute for Cancer Research and the American Cancer Society recommendations for 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week for cancer patients. Prinster and her team encourage patients to self-advocate and speak with their doctors on how yoga can benefit them.
“Yoga is like dental floss for your body,” Prinster said. “Don’t you always feel better after you floss? I mean, that’s why I do my yoga every day. I feel better after I do it.”
Elizabeth Galamba is a contributing writer. Copyright © 2026 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.