Acupuncture and Cancer Support

Acupuncture and Cancer Support

Acupuncture Treatment of Cancer Related Symptoms

 

Introduction:

According to the latest CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics data for 1997, malignant neoplasms, or cancer, was the second leading cause of death in the U.S. Twenty-three percent of deaths in the United States resulted from cancer. Thus, adjusted for age 539,219 persons died of cancer in 1997, the latest year for which statistics have been compiled (1). This massive loss of life makes cancer one of the greatest epidemics this country has ever dealt with. As a prelude to this loss of life lie many months or years of pain and anguish secondary to the physiological changes and invasiveness that characterizes malignant neoplasms.

The means used to treat these malignancies can often be as disabling as the disease itself. The usual tools of surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy can lead to devastating side effects. Surgery can leave the body with adhesions within the connective tissue which can cause a decrease in mobility and chronic pain syndromes. This decrease in mobility can lead to an increase in injury. Radiation therapy can also lead to damage to various connective tissues, damage to glandular tissues such as salivary glands, and an increased incidence of recurrent malignancy due to the radiation itself. Chemotherapy can severely weaken the body, suppress the immune function, as well as put an incredible load on an already compromised organ systems.

In addition to side effects due to convention anti-cancer therapy, various symptoms invariably occur due to the neoplasm itself. Among these are chronic pain induced by the neoplasm interaction with other tissues, breathlessness, vasomotor symptoms, etc.

 

Acupuncture is an ancient system of medicine developed in China 3000-5000 years ago. It is based upon the philosophy of qi, or energy, which permeates all organisms. The smooth flow of qi within channels, or meridians, in the body allows for normal healthy functioning of the organism. Located along these meridians are points at which this energy is most accessible to manipulation due to their having a lower electrical resistance then the tissue surrounding them. Acupuncture is used to treat almost every category of illness. The World Health organization (WHO) lists over 50 pathologies for which acupuncture may be effective.

 

Acupuncture’s Efficacy:

Several studies have addressed the efficacy of acupuncture in treating the side effects conventional cancer treatments as well as symptoms caused by the cancer itself. The studies reviewed include the effects of acupuncture upon cancer related breathlessness, xerostomia, vasomotor symptoms secondary to prostatic carcinoma, chemotherapy induced sickness, and the treatment of chronic pain.

 

The effects of acupuncture upon cancer related breathlessness was conducted on 20 patients who were breathless at rest and whose breathlessness was directly related to primary or secondary malignancy (2). It was found that acupuncture significantly improved symptoms in 70% of patients compared to before treatment. This study was not blinded and had no control group.

 

Xerostomia, or a subjective feeling of dryness in the mouth is seen in more than 70% of severely ill cancer patients. In two studies, acupuncture was shown to significantly improve xerostomia as assessed by a Visual Analog scale (VAS) in the first study and via Salivary flow rates in the second (3,4). The first study was neither blinded nor had a control group. The second attempted to utilize shallow acupuncture points as a control, but found that even the shallow acupuncture group’s symptoms improved with treatment.

 

Vasomotor symptoms of hot flushes and sweating are a common symptom in 3 of 4 perimenopausal women. It is also common in men who undergo castration therapy as a treatment for prostatic carcinoma. A pilot study with 7 men with vasomotor symptoms showed 70% decrease in hot flushes after 10 weeks of acupuncture treatment and a 50% decrease in hot flushes below pretreatment level three months after treatment had stopped. This study was not blinded and had no control group.

 

Chemotherapy induced nausea and emesis is a common problem in cancer treatment. A study involving 130 patients suffering from chemotherapy induced nausea and /or emesis showed a significant improvement in symptoms. 63% of patients had a complete absence of sickness for 8 hours following acupuncture treatment and only 5% showed no benefit. This study was placebo controlled utilizing a sham acupuncture point, but not blinded.

 

Acupuncture treatment of pain was the subject of 4 research papers. Two of these consisted of meta-analysis of pooled data from several controlled clinical studies (7,8). The conclusions were inconclusive as to whether acupuncture is an effective treatment for chronic pain. A third study looked at the effects of acupuncture on malignant pain problems, ie. chronic pain, paresthesias, post herpetic neuralgias etc (9). Results showed that 82% of 183 patients were helped, 52% significantly. This third study was not controlled or blinded. The fourth study concerned the use of acupuncture in pain relief for patients with ablation and axillary lymphadenectomy with mammary cancer (10). Results showed a significant increase in pain tolerance and mobility after treatment. A control group without acupuncture was used but this study was not blinded.

 

Conclusion:

Although there are problems concerning the design of studies addressing the efficacy of acupuncture, the evidence suggests that acupuncture can be a very useful tool in dealing with certain pathological conditions related to cancer.

 

References:

 

  1. CDC National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 47, No. 19, June 30, 1999.

 

  1. Acupuncture For Relief of Cancer-Related Breathlessness, Palliative Medicine, (1996) Vol. 10, pp. 145-150.

 

  1. Acupuncture Treatment of Patients with Radiation-Induced Xerostomia, M. Blom,et. Al., Oral Oncology, European Journal of Cancer, (1996) Vol.32B, No. 3, pp. 182-190.

 

  1. Acupuncture for Patients in Hospital-Based Home Care Suffering from Xerostomia, Margareta Rydholm et al., Journal of Palliative Care, (1999)Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 20-23.

 

  1. Acupuncture Prophylaxis of Cancer Chemotherapy-Induced Sickness, JW Dundee et al., J R Soc Med 1989 May;82(5), pp268-7.

 

  1. Acupuncture Treatment of Vasomotor Symptoms In Men With Prostatic Carcinoma: A Pilot Study, M. Hammar et. Al., The Journal of Urology, (1999) Vol. 161, pp. 853-856.

 

  1. Acupuncture and Chronic Pain: A Criteria-Based Meta-Analysis, G. Ter Reit et al., Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, (1990) Vol.43, No. 11, pp.1191-1199.

 

  1. A Meta-Analysis of Acupuncture for Chronic Pain, Mahesh Patel et al., International Journal of Epidemiology, (1989) Vol. 18, No. 4, pp900-906.

 

  1. Acupuncture and Malignant Pain Problems, European Journal of Surgical Oncology, (1985) Vol. 2, pp. 389-394.

 

  1. Pain Relief and Movement Improvement by Acupuncture After Ablation and Axillary Lymphadenectomy in Patients with Mammary Cancer, Clon. Exp. Obst. & Gyn., (1999), Vol.26, No.2, pp.81-84.