Acupuncture helps hot flushes in breast cancer therapy, concludes an international research team from America, South Korea and China. The trial enrolled 158 women receiving treatment for stage 0 to 3 breast cancer, and who were experiencing hot flushes. They joined three parallel trials in each of the three participating countries, and were randomised to receive either immediate acupuncture or delayed acupuncture as a control.
Immediate acupuncture patients were given 20 sessions over 10 weeks. Delayed acupuncture patients received usual care, then crossed over to receive acupuncture at a reduced intensity.
At week 10, immediate acupuncture patients reported statistically and clinically significant improvements in endocrine symptom scores, hot flushes and cancer therapy-related quality of life scores, compared with delayed acupuncture patients.
(Acupuncture for hot flashes in hormone receptor-positive breast cancer: A pooled analysis of individual patient data from parallel randomized trials. Cancer – Journal of the American Cancer Society, 24 June 2024.)