Music therapy is used in pediatric oncohematology as a supportive therapy. What does that mean- and what exactly

are supportive therapies?
Supportive therapies intend to relieve symptoms and help the patient live with them. Recently, many studies have been conducted on their impact on pediatric cancer patients. For example, the anesthesiologist contributes mainly to controlling the pain that is not affected by normal medication.
The main goal is to eliminate as much collateral damage as possible. Therefore, music therapy does not aim at a complete recovery, but is rather complementary to the actual medical treatment and tries to contribute to the healing process. In our department we do not consider music therapy to be a cure, but without the contribution of supportive therapies the actual healing process is much more difficult.
According to Pier Luigi Postacchini the concept of music therapy has many different implications, because it is used in various, highly differentiates areas, which not always focus mainly on the concept of therapy.  As a result music therapy as a supportive therapy will inevitably coincide with other areas, such as education. At any rate, the music will definitely aid the other therapeutic approaches. (Postacchini P.L., La musicoterapia tra espressione e reglozione delle emozioni in Regolazione delle emozioni e arti-terapie, a cura di Ricci Bitti Pio Enrico, Roma, Ed. Carocci, 1998, p.98).