from the National Institute of Health
Acupuncture for Cancer Pain and Related Symptoms
Weidong Lu, MB, MPH, PhD and David S Rosenthal, MDLeonard P. Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, HarvardMedical School
Abstract
Cancer pain is one of most prevalent symptoms in patients with cancer. Acupuncture and related techniques have been suggested for the management of cancer pain. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN®) guidelines for adult cancer pain recommends acupuncture, as one of integrative interventions, in conjunction with pharmacologic intervention as needed. This review presents the latest available evidence regarding the use of acupuncture for cancer pain. It also provides “actionable” acupuncture protocols for specific cancer pain conditions and related symptoms in order to provide more clinically relevant solutions for clinicians and cancer patients with pain. These conditions include postoperative cancer pain, postoperative nausea and vomiting, post surgical gastroparesis syndrome, opioid-induced constipation, opioid-induced pruritus,chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, aromatase inhibitor-associated joint pain, and neck dissection-related pain and dysfunction.
Although far from conclusive, accumulated evidence from clinical and animal studies has suggested that acupuncture may be beneficial to cancer patients with pain. Acupuncture protocols generated from RCT trials should be adopted by clinicians who are using acupuncture in the field. Moreover, oncology acupuncture requires that clinicians possess knowledge and skills in both acupuncture and allopathic oncology [17]. Since cancer pain is never a single entity, multiple clinical manifestations always simultaneously present in each individual patient. Clinicians who attempt to use acupuncture for cancer pain should also have a clear vision on the overall cancer progression of each patient to ensure the safety of cancer patients. The current NCCN practice guidelines and its recommendations for using acupuncture, as one of adjunct integrative interventions, for cancer pain should be followed and disseminated. As more clinical trials of acupuncture are being conducted, we expect a rapid growth of knowledge in acupuncture for cancer pain in the near future
for complete study go to https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4008096/
