Articles
Acupuncture helps with painful side-effects of cancer drug - Journal of Chinese Medicine, Jun 2010 |
| Posted by Paula Hutchinson (paulahutchinson) on Mon Jun 28, 2010 at 1:31 PM |
Acupuncture may help to relieve the joint pain and stiffness that are a common side-effect of the use of aromatase inhibitors (AI) that suppress oestrogen production in women with breast cancer. US researchers conducted a study of 43 postmenopausal women with early breast cancer who were being treated with AI and experiencing arthralgia. They were randomised to receive true acupuncture (TA - auricular acupuncture and joint-specific point prescriptions) or sham acupuncture (SA- superficial needle insertion at non-acupoint locations) twice weekly for six weeks. Pain scores at six weeks, measured using a variety of scales, were significantly lower for the TA group compared with the SA group. (Randomized, blinded, sham-controlled trial of acupuncture for the management of aromatase inhibitor-associated joint symptoms in women with early-stage breast cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2010 Mar 1;28(7):1154-60).
