An overview of acupuncture for cancer related pain

암성통증에 대한 침치료의 고찰

Aims: This overview summarizes the existing evidence on acupuncture for cancer-related pain. Methods: Literature searches were conducted in 7 databases. All clinical studies of acupuncture, electroacupuncture, ear acupuncture and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) in cancer patients with the main outcome measure of pain were included. Results: Of the 8 studies included, one high quality randomized clinical trial (RCT) of ear acupuncture showed statistically significant pain relief in comparison with placebo ear acupuncture. All the other studies were either non-blinded (n = 2) or uncontrolled clinical trials (n = 5). Most investigations suffered from methodological flaws such as inadequate study design, poor reporting of results, small sample size and overestimation of the results. Conclusions: The current evidence does not support the use of acupuncture as an adjunctive analgesic method for cancer patients. Only one high quality RCT showed promising results thus warranting further investigation into this under-researched area.