You may have seen the headlines - singing in a choir may provide a boost for people affected by cancer! We're glad that so many people are excited about this heartening piece of research, because we are proud to have published it.

As you know, ecancermedicalscience is an open-access peer-reviewed medical journal dedicated to making important research findings available to the public for free. This month, we published a research paper produced by Tenovus Cancer Care and the Royal College of Music on the relationship between singing in a choir and changes in mood and stress observed in people affected by cancer.

We published a pilot study on the topic of choir singing and mood in 2012, so what was particularly scientifically interesting about this new study was that the researchers measured cortisol, cytokine and neuropeptide activity before and after singing. These new findings suggest that choral singing can have quantifiable impact on the molecules associated with the immune system, which in turn suggests new avenues of research to explore.

This research was notably covered by the BBC's BBC Breakfast and The One Show, as well as on BBC Radio 5's In Short. (Although they didn't mention the research article, which can be read here.)

Other news sources like the Independent, the Telegraph and the Daily Mail covered the research, as well as international news outlets such as CNN and The Huffington Post.

Sometimes news claims can take a sensational turn, so it's important to consider the data for oneself. NHS's Behind the Headlines blog explained what the research implies, and prepared a great overview explaining the study's limitations in clear, easy-to-understand language.

Dissemination of peer-reviewed research is one of our key goals, so we are extremely pleased that over 2,500 readers have accessed the full-text research article. If you're interested in finding out more, we strongly encourage you to enjoy reading the research for yourself.

ecancermedicalscience loves to end on a positive note. You can learn more about our open-access journal here. And, in case you haven't managed to do so yet, you can read the original research article here.