TY  - JOUR
AU  - Baccetti, Sonia
AU  - Cortesi, Elisabetta Barbara
AU  - Monechi, Maria Valeria
AU  - Di Stefano, Mariella
AU  - Cucca, Barbara
AU  - Conti, Tommaso
AU  - Traversi, Antonella
AU  - Terranova, Filippa
AU  - Montelatici, Roberto
AU  - Barberousse, Sylvie Yvonne
AU  - Sabatini, Federica
AU  - Vuono, Catia
AU  - Bini, Christian
AU  - Rossi, Elio
AU  - Martella, Francesca
PY  - 2019
DA  - 2019/10/25
TI  - Evaluating the Effectiveness of Acupuncture, Plum Blossom, and Auriculotherapy in Treating Pain and Hot Flashes in Breast cancer Patients: An Observational Retrospective Study
JO  - OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
SP  - 061
VL  - 04
IS  - 04
AB  - Background: Pain and vasomotor symptoms are the common side effects experienced by breast cancer patients undergoing conventional oncology treatments. Traditional Chinese Medicine might represent a key treatment option for these side effects in a multidisciplinary pathway.
Aim: The present study with a retrospective design was aimed at confirming the effectiveness of acupuncture, plum blossom, and auriculotherapy in reducing hot flashes and the intensity and frequency of pain in women with breast cancer.
Materials and Methods: One hundred and fifteen female patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer and were experiencing hot flashes and/or pain were enrolled at the Fior di Prugna Center, Local Health Unit, Central Tuscany, Florence, in the period between January 2012 and August 2016. All the patients had undergone surgical intervention and/or were continuing to undergo chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy and/or hormonal treatment. Patients were treated with acupuncture according to symptom-based pre-designed protocols, which included plum blossom needles, somatic acupuncture, and auriculotherapy. The Hot Flash Score questionnaire, Present Pain Intensity Scale, and Numeric Pain Intensity Scale were used, at the baseline as well as after the completion of treatment, in order to assess the effectiveness of the acupuncture protocol on the hot flashes and the pain (both at rest and during movements).
Results: All the outcome measures were observed to improve significantly after treatment. No severe side effects were observed after the treatment. The average number of daily hot flashes was reduced from 14.2 (pre-treatment) to 7.52 (post-treatment; p < 0.001), which was consistent with the reduction in the mean Hot Flash Score from 2.20 (pre-treatment) to 1.76 (post-treatment). Furthermore, scores for pain at rest and pain during movements were reduced from 2.96 (pre-treatment) to 2.24 (post-treatment; p < 0.0001), and from 3.52 (pre-treatment) to 2.59 (post-treatment; p < 0.0001), respectively.
Conclusion: The present study confirmed that Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture, in particular, represented a safe and effective approach to reducing pain and the vasomotor symptoms, which was consistent with recent studies in the literature. Therefore, acupuncture may play a key role in supportive cancer care, as women are usually unable to undergo hormone replacement therapy due to the risks associated with it. Further research is necessary to better investigate the causal pathways leading to the effectiveness of acupuncture in cancer patients.
SN  - 2573-4393
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.icm.1904061
DO  - 10.21926/obm.icm.1904061
ID  - Baccetti2019
ER  -