A SPURIOUS CLAIM that music can be used to fight cancer has repeatedly gone viral online over the course of more than a decade. 

There have been real studies on the effects of sound and music on cancer. However, the viral posts vastly overstate the findings, including adding fictional details unsupported by studies.

“Music might do more than move our souls—it could help fight cancer,” one 8 June Facebook post read. “Scientists found that Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 destroyed 20% of cancer cells in lab tests, while leaving healthy cells untouched.

“Another piece, Ligeti’s ‘Atmosphères,’ showed similar effects, hinting that certain compositions might carry healing powers science is just starting to explore.

“Dr. Márcia Alves Marques Capella and her team in Rio de Janeiro are expanding their research, testing rhythms like Samba and Funk to find nature’s own soundtrack for healing.”

This post has been viewed more than a thousand times.

Dr. Márcia Alves Marques Capella is an Associate Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and has researched the effects of music on cancer cell samples. However, she has explicitly stated that her research did not provide the 20% figure, nor did it indicate music could fight cancer in people, nor has her research shown that music leaves “healthy cells untouched”.

The story likely originated in a 2011 interview with Capella in the Brazilian newspaper O Globo.

That story about Capella’s research into music’s effects on cancer is more accurate than later social media posts, noting that the cancer cells were lab-grown on Petri dishes, not in humans or lab animals. The article makes no mention of healthy cells remaining intact.

However, it does contain the claim about one fifth of the cancer cells dying.

It also mentions plans to test the effect of samba and funk on cancer cells — tests that never went ahead and that the researcher interviewed by O Globo says had never been planned.

The scientific papers based on the work of Capella and other researchers were published in 2013 and 2016, and are available online.

The series of experiments described in the 2013 paper involved exposing samples of a human breast cancer cell line to the first movement of one of three compositions: Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, KV. 448; Beethoven’s 5th Symphony; and Ligeti’s Atmosphères.

Additional control samples were exposed only to silence — some in an incubator chamber with plugged in speakers playing nothing, and others without any speaker.

After multiple repetitions of the experiment, the researchers concluded that some compositions disrupted the cells’ cycles and markers for DNA degradation were recorded, “suggesting an increase in cell death”.

The Mozart composition and the control groups did not show these results.

The second experiment looked at a second breast cancer cell line, and more definitively demonstrated that certain compositions induced cell death. Other types of cells tested, including two leukaemia cell lines, were unaffected.

The researchers were unsure of how the music caused cell death in the affected cell lines, though hypothesised the sound may have caused a specific mechanical vibration.

The paper ends by noting they planned longer observations “to understand the properties observed by music intervention to people with disease.”

Neither paper gives a 20% figure for cell death. And the only mention of any intact healthy cells was MDCK, a line of dog kidney cells which were tested but showed no change.

Neither study suggested the results showed music should be used a method to treat cancer in actual patients, and in an email to Snopes, Capella said that the experiments she performed on cell lines in petri dishes “could not be extended to human beings”.

She also noted that their methods did not allow them to quantify cell death, and as such the 20% figure spread online was not based on real research.

The effect of sounds or music on cells, including cancer cells, is a real subject of scientific study. And the research carried out by Capella has shown compelling results.

However, claims that music can fight cancer are not supported by scientific evidence and can be potentially dangerous if they dissuade patients from taking conventional therapies. Such exaggerated claims are often shared in alternative medicine circles to show that ‘frequencies’ or ‘vibrations’ can be used as medicine, or that cures for cancer are known, but ignored or suppressed.

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