Written by Edzard Ernst and the CAM-Cancer Consortium.
Updated March 11, 2011

Acupuncture in cancer pain

Does it work ?

One of the main indications of acupuncture in oncological patients is pain control. A systematic review from 2005 2 included 7 RCTs testing the effectiveness of acupuncture for cancer pain. Because of the mostly poor methodological quality of the primary studies and their contradictory findings the conclusion was negative: “The notion that acupuncture is effective… is not supported by …. rigorous clinical trials” 2. A subsequent review arrived at very similar conclusions 3. Since then, several further studies were published which tend to suggest positive effects of acupuncture on cancer pain 4-8. None of these studies, however, are free of serious limitations. In particular, these trials fail to control for non-specific effects of acupuncture 4-5,7-8, have a small sample size 4,7-8 or generate results that seem less than plausible, e.g. a 94% response rate after acupuncture 4 or a lack of a response to sham-acupuncture 6. Thus, collectively, the evidence to suggest that acupuncture is effective in reducing cancer pain is not conclusive.

Citation

Edzard Ernst, CAM-Cancer Consortium. Acupuncture in cancer pain [online document]. http://www.cam-cancer.org/CAM-Summaries/Mind-body-interventions/Acupuncture-in-cancer-pain. March 11, 2011.

Document history

First published in March 2011, authored by Edzard Ernst.

References

  1. Zhao ZQ. Neural mechanism underlying acupuncture analgesia. Prog Neurobiol 2008; 84(4):355-375.
  2. Lee H, Schmidt K, Ernst E. Acupuncture for the relief of cancer-related pain - a systematic review. J Symp Pain Man 2004;9(4):437-44.
  3. Bardia A, Barton DL, Prokop LJ, Bauer BA, Moynihan TJ. Efficacy of complementary and alternative medicine therapies in relieving cancer pain: a systematic review. J Clin Oncol 2006; 24(34):5457-64.
  4. Chen Z-J, Guo Y-P, Wu Z-C. Observation on the therapeutic effect of acupuncture at pain points on cancer pain. Zhongguo Zhenjiu 2008; 28(4):251-253.
  5. Mehling WE, Jacobs B, Acree M, Wilson L, Bostrum A, West J et al. Symptom management with massage and acupuncture in postoperative cancer patients: a randomized controlled trial. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2007; 33(3):258-266.
  6. Nguyen J. Analgesic effect of auricular acupuncture for cancer pain: a randomized blinded, controlled trial. Acupunct et Moxi 2005; 2:144-146.
  7. Wong RHL, Lee TW, Sihoe ADL, Wan IYP, Ng CSH, Chan SKC et al. Analgesic effect of electroacupuncture in postthoracotomy pain: a prospective randomized trial. Ann Thorac Surg. 2006; 81(6):2031-2036.
  8. Zhang T, Ma S-L, Xie G-R, Dent Q-H, Tang Z-Z, Pan X-C. Clinical research on nourishing yin and unblocking meridians recipe combined with opioid analgesics in cancer pain management. Chinese J Integrative Med 2006; 12(3):180-184.
  9. White A, Hayhoe S, Ernst E. Survey of Adverse Events Following Acupuncture Acupunct Med. 1997; 15:67-70.
  10. White A. A cumulative review of the range and incidence of significant adverse events associated with acupuncture. Acupunct Med. 2004; 22(3):122-123.
  11. Ernst E. Deaths after acupuncture: a systematic review. Int J Risk Safety 2010; 22(3):131-136.
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