Working with a therapist to create music videos may help young cancer patients feel better, a new study suggests, Fox News reports.

The researchers studied 113 young people, ages 11 to 24, who were being treated for cancer with intravenous infusions of stem cells. Most of them had leukemia or lymphoma.

The preparation for those infusions is grueling. First, patients have to go through chemotherapy or radiation to wipe out cancerous cells. During the treatments, their immune systems become very weak and they can be in the hospital for weeks at a time, with symptoms like nausea and mouth sores.

All of the patients in the study met with a music therapist six times over about three weeks while they were in the hospital. Half were randomly assigned to work with the therapist on making a music video - writing lyrics, recording a song and selecting art - and the others listened to audiobooks instead.

At the end of the study, young people in the music video group could invite their family and friends to a video premiere.

The researchers found that directly after making the videos, young people were coping with their cancer in a positive, optimistic way more often than those who had listened to audiobooks. A few months after treatment, they felt more support from doctors, friends and family and reported a better family environment than the other patients, based on their responses on questionnaires.

Music therapists are increasingly considered part of standard care at children's hospitals, the researchers noted.