Patients with breast cancer suffer a lot during treatment
both physically and mentally that have significant impact on the quality of
life of patients. Recently a randomized placebo-controlled clinical study
showed that electroacupuncture (EA) is able to markedly improve fatigue and
psychological symptoms of patients with early stage breast cancer. This is the
first demonstration of efficacy of EA on such a study reported in the journal
Cancer.
Around 50% of breast cancer patients are treated with
aromatase inhibitor to prevent disease recurrence. Although the drug is
effective many patients experience joint pain and associated fatigue and other psychological
symptoms that may cause them stop taking medication. In fact nearly 50% of
patients with breast cancer do not complete their recommended treatment courses.
This puts those patients in a higher risk of dying both breast cancer and other
causes.
Dr. Jun Mao and colleagues in the Abramson Cancer Centre
in the United States conducted a randomized placebo-controlled clinical study
to assess the efficacy of EA on fatigue and other psychological symptoms of breads
cancer patients with aromatase inhibitor-related joint pain. Sixty-seven breast
cancer patients who were treated with aromatase inhibitors were divided into
three groups, EA group, sham EA group and medication alone group. Patients were
given EA and sham EA twice weekly for 2 weeks, then weekly for 6 more weeks,
for a total 10 treatments over 8 weeks. Fatigue, sleep disturbance, anxiety and
depression were assessed before, during and after treatment using the Brief
Fatigue Inventory (BFI), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and the Hospital
Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). It was found that EA produced a
significant improvement in fatigue, anxiety, depression and a non-significant
improvement in sleep disturbance during 8-week treatment and 4-week follow-up
compared with drug alone group. Sham electroacupuncture only markedly improved
depression compared with medication alone group.
The study demonstrated that EA is very effective in
reducing fatigue, sleep disturbance and psychological distress related to pain
in patients with early stage breast cancer and its effect maintained 4 weeks
after intervention.
Referecen:
Mao J et al., Electroacupuncture
for fatigue, sleep, and psychological distress in breast cancer patients with
aromatase inhibitor-related arthralgia: A randomized trial. Cancer. 2014 Jul
30. doi: 10.1002/cncr.28917. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25077452
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