It’s difficult to say whether acupuncture can heal cancer, because conducting experiments in which patients are given only acupuncture treatment and denied the conventional therapy would be unethical. Chances are, acupuncture alone cannot heal cancer. At the same time, acupuncture has been included as an adjunct modality in cancer treatment, and research has shown that it can help for a variety of issues.
Acupuncture may help peripheral neuropathy caused by chemotherapy in patients who have breast cancer (Huang et al., 2021). It can also help cancer survivors to reduce insomnia (Yang et al., 2021). Ear acupuncture can help relieve cancer pain (Ruela et al., 2018). Electro-acupuncture can be effective treatment for musculoskeletal pain in cancer survivors (Mao et al., 2021). Acupuncture can help to reduce fatigue in cancer patients (Jang et al., 2020). Even more importantly, research is trying to find out whether or not and to what degree acupuncture can reduce cancer tumor growth (Xu et al., 2020), but more and more results demonstrate that Chinese herbal medicine can have a greater impact on slowing cancer tumor growth (Zhao et al., 2020).
The acupuncturists at the Advanced Holistic Center pay close attention to new discoveries in acupuncture’s efficacy in treatment of cancer, so they’ll be able to offer their patients the latest most effective treatment options.
References
- Huang, C. C., Ho, T. J., Ho, H. Y., Chen, P. Y., Tu, C. H., Huang, Y. C., … & Chen, Y. H. (2021). Acupuncture relieved chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in patients with breast cancer: a pilot randomized sham-controlled trial. Journal of clinical medicine, 10(16), 3694.
- Jang, A., Brown, C., Lamoury, G., Morgia, M., Boyle, F., Marr, I., … & Oh, B. (2020). The effects of acupuncture on cancer-related fatigue: updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Integrative cancer therapies, 19, 1534735420949679.
- Mao, J. J., Liou, K. T., Baser, R. E., Bao, T., Panageas, K. S., Romero, S. A., … & Kantoff, P. W. (2021). Effectiveness of electroacupuncture or auricular acupuncture vs usual care for chronic musculoskeletal pain among cancer survivors: the PEACE randomized clinical trial. JAMA oncology, 7(5), 720-727.
- Ruela, L. D. O., Iunes, D. H., Nogueira, D. A., Stefanello, J., & Gradim, C. V. C. (2018). Effectiveness of auricular acupuncture in the treatment of cancer pain: randomized clinical trial. Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da USP, 52.
- Xu, X., Feng, X., He, M., Zhang, Z., Wang, J., Zhu, H., … & Wang, Z. (2020). The effect of acupuncture on tumor growth and gut microbiota in mice inoculated with osteosarcoma cells. Chinese medicine, 15(1), 1-15.
- Yang, M., Liou, K. T., Garland, S. N., Bao, T., Hung, T. K., Li, S. Q., … & Mao, J. J. (2021). Acupuncture versus cognitive behavioral therapy for pain among cancer survivors with insomnia: an exploratory analysis of a randomized clinical trial. NPJ Breast Cancer, 7(1), 1-7.
- Zhao, B., Hui, X., Jiao, L., Bi, L., Wang, L., Huang, P., … & Xu, L. (2020). A TCM formula YYWY inhibits tumor growth in non-small cell lung cancer and enhances immune-response through facilitating the maturation of dendritic cells. Frontiers in pharmacology, 11, 798.
