Acupuncture helps Hot Flushes in Breast Cancer Therapy

Acupuncture helps hot flushes in breast cancer therapy, concludes an international research team from America, South Korea and China. The trial enrolled 158 women receiving treatment for stage 0 to 3 breast cancer, and who were experiencing hot flushes. They joined three parallel trials in each of the three participating countries, and were randomised to receive either immediate acupuncture or delayed acupuncture as a control.

Immediate acupuncture patients were given 20 sessions over 10 weeks. Delayed acupuncture patients received usual care, then crossed over to receive acupuncture at a reduced intensity.

At week 10, immediate acupuncture patients reported statistically and clinically significant improvements in endocrine symptom scores, hot flushes and cancer therapy-related quality of life scores, compared with delayed acupuncture patients.

(Acupuncture for hot flashes in hormone receptor-positive breast cancer: A pooled analysis of individual patient data from parallel randomized trials. Cancer – Journal of the American Cancer Society, 24 June 2024.)

Author: Robin Costello

I offer traditional Chinese acupuncture in Exeter, from a tranquil clinic a mile from the city centre, and next to the University of Exeter. I graduated originally from the London School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine’s 3 year full time Acupuncture Diploma (DipAc) course. I am on the practitioners register of the British Acupuncture Council (MBAcC), a regulatory and professional body with an entry standard of a full three year undergraduate degree level training. I have worked in a hospital in south west China, deepening my knowledge and using acupuncture and Chinese massage (tuina) as the treatment of choice in its country of origin. I have taught Chinese medicine in colleges, the NHS and at university level. I also practise Qi Gong, and Chinese dietary therapy, that is the medicinal use of ordinary foods, chosen to help achieve particular therapeutic effects in different individuals.