Humanized – Dec 2025
At the Hospital Vithas Valencia 9 de Octubre, a new therapeutic initiative has taken shape: a Living Lab of music therapy implemented as part of the European Horizon Europe–funded project Music360.
What has happened?
The hospital’s oncology day-treatment area has hosted sessions of music therapy for patients receiving chemotherapy. Two complementary approaches have been used:
• Guided relaxation sessions using recorded music (about 30–40 minutes)
• Live mini-concerts (about 30–40 minutes)
These two approaches have been applied to the same patients so that their effects can be compared.
Why it matters
Music therapy has shown promising benefits in oncology: reducing stress, improving mood, and enhancing emotional well-being. The hospital’s manager emphasises that, for cancer patients, music can “alleviate emotional suffering, reduce stress, and improve the perception of the treatment.”
Moreover, this project aims not only to assess the clinical effects, but also the social and economic value of music in hospital settings.
The broader context
The Music360 project brings together universities and organisations across Europe to evaluate how music can enhance quality of life in hospitals. In Spain, the initiative is led by researcher Conrado Carrascosa López from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV).
For Vithas Valencia 9 de Octubre, hosting this Living Lab underlines its commitment to a patient-centred model of care in which emotional and psychosocial dimensions are as important as the clinical and physical ones.
What to watch for
• The comparative outcomes of live concerts vs. recorded relaxation: which one has a stronger effect on stress, mood, or treatment tolerance?
• How the insights gained will translate into hospital practice: will music therapy become a standard part of oncology care?
• The economic evaluation: can the project demonstrate cost-effectiveness (e.g., reduced anxiety, better adherence, fewer complications) that may influence policy and hospital investment decisions?
• The potential for scalability: if successful, could other hospitals adopt similar models—both in Valencia/Spain and across Europe?
Conclusion
This initiative marks a meaningful intersection of health care, innovation, and the arts. By embedding music therapy into the hospital setting and coupling it with rigorous evaluation, Vithas Valencia 9 de Octubre and the Music360 consortium are contributing to a vision of holistic oncology care—one that listens not only to the body, but also to the psyche, the heart, and the human experience of healing.
Music360 