The Therapeutic Effects of Acupuncture and Electro-acupuncture on Cancer-related Symptoms and Side-Effects

Acupuncture and electroacupuncture in the treatment of cancer-related symptoms represent a growing area of interest in modern oncology. Cancer, in addition to being one of the leading causes of death worldwide, generates a series of debilitating symptoms that may arise both from the disease itself and from conventional treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. These symptoms include fatigue, insomnia, digestive problems, pain, dry mouth, and psychological changes such as anxiety and depression, all of which significantly impact patients' quality of life, impair treatment adherence, and may negatively affect long-term survival.

Complementary and alternative medicine has gained increasing prominence in cancer care, with acupuncture standing out as one of the most widely used approaches. Traditional acupuncture consists of the insertion of fine needles at specific body points, a technique practiced for more than 2,500 years in East Asia. Electroacupuncture, developed around the 1950s, represents an evolution of this technique, applying weak electrical currents through the needles after the conventional procedure. Prestigious organizations such as the World Health Organization and the U.S.

National Institutes of Health have already recognized the efficacy of acupuncture for more than 100 medical conditions, including postoperative and chemotherapy-related nausea.

This study aimed to systematically review the scientific evidence on the therapeutic effects of acupuncture and electroacupuncture in the treatment of cancer-related symptoms and side effects. The researchers analyzed multiple clinical trials and experimental studies that investigated the use of these techniques to treat cancer-related fatigue, insomnia, dyspeptic syndrome associated with chemotherapy, cancer pain, radiotherapy-induced xerostomia, anxiety, and depression. The methodology involved a comprehensive review of the scientific literature, examining both animal-model studies and randomized clinical trials in cancer patients, with particular focus on the biological mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects observed.

The results demonstrated promising evidence for the use of acupuncture and electroacupuncture in various cancer-related conditions. For cancer-related fatigue, which affects up to 90% of patients and may persist for up to 10 years after treatment, multiple studies showed significant symptom improvement. In breast cancer patients, clinical trials documented important fatigue reduction with both traditional acupuncture and electroacupuncture, especially in women using aromatase inhibitors. Similar results were observed in patients with lung cancer and head and neck cancer undergoing chemoradiotherapy.

As for cancer-related insomnia, which affects up to 50% of patients with a prevalence three times higher than the general population, the results were more varied. Although some studies showed significant and long-lasting improvements in cancer survivors, others presented less consistent evidence, possibly due to the limited size of the samples studied. For digestive problems associated with chemotherapy, including nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and diarrhea, several investigations demonstrated that acupuncture can serve as effective complementary therapy, reducing the need for antiemetic medications and improving symptoms that traditionally respond poorly to conventional treatments.

In the area of cancer pain control, present in up to 90% of patients at different stages of the disease, the results were particularly encouraging. Studies demonstrated efficacy for both tumor-related pain and treatment-related pain, including chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy and postoperative pain. Electroacupuncture was especially effective in the treatment of pancreatic pain and in reducing the need for narcotic analgesics. For radiotherapy-induced xerostomia, a condition affecting more than half of head and neck cancer patients, acupuncture demonstrated significant symptom reduction compared with standard care.

The clinical implications of these findings are substantial for patients and healthcare professionals. For patients, acupuncture and electroacupuncture represent safe therapeutic options with few side effects that can be integrated with conventional treatments to improve quality of life during and after oncologic treatment. The capacity of these techniques to reduce debilitating symptoms may improve adherence to conventional treatments and potentially have a positive long-term impact on outcomes. For healthcare professionals, these results suggest that incorporating acupuncture into oncologic care programs may offer important complementary benefits, particularly when conventional treatments are limited or insufficient.

The biological mechanisms proposed to explain these therapeutic effects include regulation of mitochondrial function, coordination of nervous system activity, modulation of neurotransmitter production, and relief of exacerbated immune responses. In the specific case of analgesia, studies have demonstrated the involvement of endogenous opioid peptides and various neurotransmitters such as serotonin and substance P. For fatigue, the mechanisms appear to be related to reduction of mitochondrial oxidative stress and increased ATP synthesis. In the treatment of insomnia, reduction of sympathetic activity and modulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis were observed.

The limitations identified include variability in study quality, frequently small sample sizes, differences in the acupuncture techniques used and specific points stimulated, as well as the inherent difficulty of creating truly blinded control groups for acupuncture interventions. Many studies used symptoms as secondary rather than primary endpoints, limiting the strength of the conclusions. Additionally, the underlying biological mechanisms remain incompletely understood, requiring further research to fully clarify how these techniques exert their therapeutic effects.

Considering this evidence, acupuncture and electroacupuncture emerge as promising and complementary therapeutic approaches in oncologic care, offering relief for multiple cancer-related symptoms with a favorable safety profile. Nevertheless, more well-designed clinical trials with adequate samples and rigorous methodologies are needed to establish standardized protocols and facilitate broader adoption of these techniques in oncologic clinical practice.