Category: Cancer Care

In 2024, the respected journal Supportive Care in Cancer published the first international, multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed recommendations for safe acupuncture practice in integrative oncology. These recommendations conclude by saying “It (acupuncture) should be routinely considered, and ideally offered, as part of the multi-disciplinary approach to cancer care, as it can be administered safely within and outside of oncology settings, at any stage of the cancer survivorship pathway.”

Acupuncture can make a useful contribution in cancer care. There is no evidence that it can treat or cure cancer, but used alongside conventional oncology, it can help relieve some cancer symptoms and the side effects of treatment.

Cancer Research UK has a summary of acupuncture and how it may be useful to patients. They point out that acupuncture is generally safe, gives very few side effects, and that most studies show that acupuncture is better than no treatment at all. Furthermore, it is as good as or better than, standard treatment for chemotherapy-related sickness, tiredness, pain, anxiety and stress, depression, mood changes, quality of life, and hot flushes.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology says in its 2022 Guideline that among adult patients, acupuncture should be recommended for aromatase inhibitor–related joint pain, and it may be recommended for general cancer pain or musculoskeletal pain. These recommendations are based on an intermediate level of evidence, with the benefit outweighing the risk, and with moderate strength of recommendation.

You can read below the results of some of the research which has been undertaken into acupuncture in cancer care. The trials vary in quality, but systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials are generally considered to provide the highest quality evidence. If you would like to read more about evidence quality, I would refer you to the British Acupuncture Council’s description of the evidence pyramid.

Acupuncture helps fatigue in cancer survivors with chronic musculoskeletal pain, providing them with clinically meaningful and long-lasting improvements.

American researchers lead by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, conducted a secondary analysis of data from a trial originally designed to assess the effects of auricular (ear) acupuncture and electroacupuncture, versus waiting list control. A total of 274 participants with moderate to severe fatigue, were randomised to 10 weekly acupuncture sessions of either type, or to waiting list control. Assessments were made at weeks 12 and 24. Clinically meaningful improvements in fatigue were made by 61% of electroacupuncture patients, 52% of auricular acupuncture patients, and 37% of those in the waiting list control group.

The study authors suggest that with benefits extending to six months, acupuncture is a valuable evidence-based option for cancer patients with both fatigue and pain.

(Effect of acupuncture on fatigue in cancer survivors with chronic pain: a secondary analysis. Supportive Care in Cancer, 13 December 2025.)

Self-administered acupressure, learned through a mobile app, offers a possible low-cost option for managing cancer-related fatigue (CRF) in women diagnosed with ovarian cancer, suggests an American randomised trial.

The most recent American Society of Clinical Oncology-Society for Integrative Oncology guidelines, recommend self-acupressure for post-treatment CRF. Acupressure studies for CRF however have been almost exclusively in breast cancer survivors, and may not be applicable to ovarian cancer survivors. Also, previous research used acupressure educators to teach women acupressure, and this approach creates barriers to accessibility and scalability. A mobile app could help to address this.

A team therefore conducted a randomised trial comparing true self-acupressure with sham self-acupressure, both taught via a mobile app, and usual care to determine whether this is an intervention that decreases CRF in ovarian cancer survivors. Participants were recruited through cancer surveillance programmes and survivor groups. All had initiated surgery or chemotherapy at least four weeks prior to enrollment. The acupressure app was installed on computer tablets, and both the tablet and an acupressure device were sent to participants along with instructions on their use.

Participants in the true acupressure group were told to perform daily self-acupressure on five acupoints for 3 minutes per point for 27 minutes daily for 6 weeks. The sham acupressure group were given the same instructions for five non-therapeutic points in the same regions of the body. All three groups continued to receive usual care. A total of 137 women completed the six week course.

At week 6, the portion of women no longer clinically fatigued was 58% in the true acupressure group, 51% in the sham group, and 18% in the usual care group. The relative benefit of true acupressure over usual care, persisted at 24 weeks. A clinically meaningful improvement in quality of life was also observed in the true acupressure group compared with the usual care group.

The team concludes that this approach is effective, inexpensive and safe. They add that sham acupressure had smaller but meaningful impacts on CRF. Given that the sham acupoints were located in the same region of the body as the true acupoints and considering that acupressure impacts peripheral sensory nerves and ultimately central nervous system functioning, it is possible that the sham points also stimulated similar peripheral nerves to the true acupressure points. This could have led to similar impacts on CRF.

(Self-Acupressure for Fatigue in Patients Surviving Ovarian Cancer – A Randomized Clinical Trial. Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open, 5 February 2026.)

Acupuncture helps chemotherapy nausea according to the results of a multicentre study undertaken by hospital and university researchers in France. A total of 115 patients receiving chemotherapy, were randomised to one of four groups: usual care alone; wrist acupuncture; ear acupuncture; wrist and ear acupuncture together. Acupuncture was given just before chemotherapy. All patients received standard antiemetic medication. Nausea intensity was then assessed 24 hours after chemotherapy.

All three acupuncture treatment groups experienced significantly lower nausea intensity compared with the usual care group. None of the interventions though had any effect on vomiting episodes.

(Auriculotherapy and acupuncture treatments for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting: a multicenter clinical trial. Support Care in Cancer, 31 July 2024.)

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.)