The impact of cancer
According to Cancer Research UK, one in two people will get cancer during their lifetime. Few are spared its effects, either on account of personal ill health or the illness or death of loved ones. Treatments are constantly improving, and include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy and drug and hormone therapy. More people are surviving cancer, and many are able to live with it for extended periods. However, most cancer treatments have side effects, many of which are life altering. Common physical side effects include pain, nausea, diarrhoea, fatigue, neuropathy, xerostomia, hot flushes and night sweats. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of pain amongst cancer patients found that 39.3% of patients were still experiencing pain even after treatment rated as curative (Van den Beuken-van Everdingen et al, 2016). De Valois et al (2022) estimate that 84% of women taking tamoxifen for breast cancer suffer from hot flushes and/or night sweats. These can persevere for up to 5 years following adjuvant hormonal treatment. One study (Paranjpe et al, 2019) suggests that over two thirds of patients discontinue therapy before the recommended five years has passed. This has repercussions for long term survival.
Psychologically, patients suffer from anxiety regarding treatment or recurrence, trauma following the shock of a life-threatening diagnosis or illness, and the difficulty of adjusting to sometimes permanent changes in appearance or physical fitness. Life doesn’t always return to normal for cancer survivors, and this can impact on relationships, finances and emotional well-being.
Moreover, cancer does not only impact the patient. The suffering or loss of loved ones can have a devastating effect on the whole family. In addition to the emotional toll, lifestyles and roles may have to change permanently. It can lead to substantial loss of income if the patient is unable to return to work or a partner/parent/child needs to become a carer.
How can acupuncture help?
There is now a significant body of research supporting the use of acupuncture in oncology care. The Society for Integrative Oncology (USA) and ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) have issued joint guidelines for medical practitioners suggesting that acupuncture should be recommended to patients for aromatase inhibitor related joint pain, musculoskeletal pain and anxiety (Mao et al, 2022).
Researchers have been investigating the impact of acupuncture on hot flushes for over two decades. Beverley de Valois (2023) summarises much of the research in her book Acupuncture and Cancer Survivorship: Recovery, Renewal and Transformation. She has been involved in a 15 year project to investigate the impact of auricular acupuncture on hot flashes and night sweats amongst breast cancer patients (de Valois et al, 2022). Wang et al (2023) evaluated 621 papers related to acupuncture in the treatment of breast cancer related symptoms and conclude that acupuncture has been shown to be effective in reducing pain, fatigue and in improving quality of life.
Other studies have demonstrated that acupuncture can deliver clinically significant improvements in patients suffering from: cancer related fatigue (Choi et al, 2022); joint pain (Hershman et al, 2018 and 2022); musculoskeletal pain (He et al, 2019, Mao et al, 2021 and 2023); xerostomia (Garcia et al, 2019); peripheral neuropathy (Bao et al, 2020) and insomnia (Zhang et al, 2022).
References
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Bao T, Patil S, Chen C, Zhi IW, Li QS, Piulson L, Mao JJ. Effect of Acupuncture vs Sham Procedure on Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Symptoms: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2020 Mar 2;3(3):e200681. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.0681. PMID: 32159808; PMCID: PMC7066475.
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