Acupuncture (PDQ®)–Health Professional Version

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Changes to This Summary (10/20/2016)

The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.

Human/Clinical Studies

Added text about a 2015 Cochrane systematic review of five randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that reported benefits of acupuncture in reducing pancreatic cancer pain, pain from late-stage cancer, and chronic cancer-related neuropathic pain; the study found no difference between real and sham electroacupuncture for ovarian cancer pain (cited Paley et al. as reference 14). Also added text about a 2016 systematic review and meta-analysis of 1,639 participants with cancer-related pain in 20 RCTs with a high risk of bias that showed that acupuncture alone was not superior to conventional drug therapy, although acupuncture plus drug therapy appeared to be superior to drug therapy alone (cited Hu et al. as reference 15).

Added text about a 2016 pragmatic RCT that compared individualized acupuncture plus enhanced self-care with enhanced self-care and showed that the combination therapy was superior to self-care alone in reducing hot flash scores at the end of treatment, at the 3-month follow-up visit, and at the 6-month follow-up visit (cited Lesi et al. as reference 64 and level of evidence 1iiC).

Revised Table 5 to include the Lesi et al. study in the summary of RCTs of acupuncture for hot flashes in breast cancer patients.

This summary is written and maintained by the PDQ Integrative, Alternative, and Complementary Therapies Editorial Board, which is editorially independent of NCI. The summary reflects an independent review of the literature and does not represent a policy statement of NCI or NIH. More information about summary policies and the role of the PDQ Editorial Boards in maintaining the PDQ summaries can be found on the About This PDQ Summary and PDQ® - NCI's Comprehensive Cancer Database pages.

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