AsianScientist (Jan. 2, 2014) – Breast cancer patients experience fewer side effects while being treated with a widely used drug called an aromatase inhibitor when they get acupuncture – either the real treatment or a “sham” procedure, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center.
Their findings are published online in the journal Cancer.
“We found that patients with early stage, hormone receptor-positive breast cancer taking an aromatase inhibitor showed significant improvement in some symptoms, especially hot flashes, after eight weekly treatments with real acupuncture or sham acupuncture,” said lead author Ting Bao, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and research scientist at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center.
She notes that the study sample of 47 women – 23 who received real acupuncture and 24 who had the sham procedure – may not have been large enough to detect a distinction. In addition, sham acupuncture, which is performed using non-penetrating, retractable needles at non-acupuncture points in the body, may have some unexplained physiological effects.
“We are not convinced that sham acupuncture is totally inert,” she said. “Importantly, neither type of acupuncture produced any significant side effects, which is good news for patients.”
Up to 60 percent of postmenopausal women with breast cancer who take an aromatase inhibitor, which inhibits an enzyme involved in producing estrogen, experience joint and muscle pain and other side effects, such as hot flashes, anxiety and depression. The study findings may lend support to the use of acupuncture to treat these symptoms.
“If we really want to find something that will help patients, acupuncture is a reasonable alternative to drug therapy, which can produce its own set of side effects,” said Bao.
In February 2013, Bao and her colleagues reported similar findings in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment in regard to joint and muscle pain associated with treatment with aromatase inhibitors. They found that acupuncture and sham acupuncture improved breast cancer patients’ symptoms but saw no statistical difference between the two interventions.
The article can be found at: Bao T et al. (2013) Patient-reported outcomes in women with breast cancer enrolled in a dual-center, double-blind, randomized controlled trial assessing the effect of acupuncture in reducing aromatase inhibitor-induced musculoskeletal symptoms.
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Source: University of Maryland; Photo: ~ggvic~/Flickr/CC.
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