Abstract
Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a disabling side effect caused by neurotoxic chemotherapy. This randomized controlled trial aimed to evaluate the effect of manual acupuncture on CIPN. Twenty eligible breast cancer patients receiving taxane chemotherapy treatment were recruited and randomly divided into verum acupuncture and sham acupuncture groups. Each group received 15 treatments over 9 weeks. Quantitative tactile detection thresholds were measured using Semmes–Weinstein monofilament testing (SWM). The World Health Organization Quality of Life scale (WHOQOL-BREF), the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy/Gynecologic Oncology Group-Neurotoxicity (FACT/GOG-Ntx), and the Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form (BPI-SF) were measured before and after treatment. The between-group comparison of SWM revealed that the verum acupuncture group had more improvement of touch perception thresholds compared to the sham acupuncture group. The average pain severity in the BPI-SF of the verum acupuncture group was significantly lower than that of the sham acupuncture group. There were no significant differences in the FACT/GOG-Ntx trial outcome index and WHOQOL-BREF scores between the acupuncture and sham groups. The results suggest that acupuncture can alleviate the neuropathic pain of CIPN and improve touch perception thresholds.
Highlights
Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is one of the refractory and disabling side effects of neurotoxic chemotherapy among patients with cancer
The inclusion criteria included adult women aged above 20 years, diagnosed with stage I–III breast cancer by a histological analysis, and who had completed adjuvant or neoadjuvant neurotoxic chemotherapy, with the severity of CIPN matching the definition of the National Cancer Institute-Common
After the 9-week treatment, the intra-group comparison of the verum acupuncture group showed that the touch perception thresholds of left hand’s palm (LHP), right hand’s middle fingertip (RHT), right hand’s palm (RHP), left foot’s plantar (LFP), right foot’s big toe tip (RFT), and right foot’s plantar (RFP) detection points were significantly improved, except for the left hand’s middle fingertip (LHT) and left foot’s big toe tip (LFT) (Figure 3B–D,F–H)
Summary
Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is one of the refractory and disabling side effects of neurotoxic chemotherapy among patients with cancer. Chemotherapyinduced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a disabling pain condition [1] involving damage to the structure and function of peripheral motor, sensory, and autonomic neurons [2]. The ideal clinical evaluations including clinical examination, objective neurophysiological parameters, and patient-reported outcomes are common diagnostic protocols in CIPN [6]. By analyzing reliable patient-reported outcome measures, several randomized controlled trials revealed preliminary evidence-based treatment effects of acupuncture or electro-acupuncture (EA) in the treatment of CIPN [11,12,13,14]. We conducted a randomized controlled trial using (1) the patient-initiated reporting scale assessment and (2) the quantitative sensory testing, Semmes–Weinstein monofilament (SWM), to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture on CIPN in patients with breast cancer
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