Acupuncture for the treatment of post-chemotherapy chronic fatigue: a randomized, blinded, sham-controlled trial
Open accessAbstract
Purpose Many cancer patients experience persistent fatigue after the completion of chemotherapy. A previous single-arm study provided evidence for an effect of acupuncture in this population. We conducted a randomized controlled trial to determine whether acupuncture reduces post-chemotherapy chronic fatigue more effectively than sham acupuncture. Methods Cancer patients reporting significant fatigue persisting for at least 2 months following the completion of chemotherapy were randomized to receive once weekly true or sham acupuncture for 6 weeks. Fatigue was evaluated before and after treatment using the Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI, the primary endpoint). Secondary endpoints included the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Functional Assessment of Cancer Treatment-General (FACT-G) scores. Results One hundred one patients were randomized with 74 (34 true acupuncture; 40 sham control) evaluated for the primary endpoint. BFI scores fell by about one point between baseline and follow-up in both groups with no statistically significant difference between groups. HADS and FACT-G scores also improved in both groups, but there was no significant difference between groups. Patients in the sham acupuncture group crossed over to receive true acupuncture in week 7. No long-term reduction of fatigue scores was observed at the 6-month evaluation. Conclusions True acupuncture as provided in this study did not reduce post-chemotherapy chronic fatigue more than did sham acupuncture. The study is limited by the number of patients lost to follow-up. We also cannot exclude the possibility that a more intensive treatment regimen may be more effective.
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Results on acupuncture's effectiveness in improving fatigue were inconsistent.
“However, results on its effectiveness in improving fatigue were inconsistent.26,27”
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“are attributed to chronic exercise and no other influencing factors [50].”
BackgroundLi, H., Jin, X., Ng, M. S. N., Mann, K. F., Wang, N., & Wong, C. L. (2022) · Asia-Pacific Journal of Oncology Nursing · doi:10.1016/j.apjon.2022.100102 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
- Authors
- Deng, G., Chan, Y., Sjoberg, D., Vickers, A., Yeung, K. S., Kris, M., Straus, D., & Cassileth, B.
- Affiliations
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Deng, Gary
- Venue
- Supportive Care in Cancer
- Published
- 2013-01-20
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1735-1741
- ISSN
- 0941-4355 (ISSN-L)
- 1433-7339
- PMC
- PMC3953893
- OpenAlex
- W2007065382
- Cited by
- 69
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 15.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Supportive Care in Cancer (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Cancer Institute (P30CA008748)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Acupuncture Treatment Research Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies
- Keywords
- acupuncture, chronic fatigue, cancer patients, chemotherapy side effects, sham acupuncture, Brief Fatigue Inventory, anxiety and depression, quality of life, supportive care
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Antineoplastic Agents, Breast Neoplasms, Chronic Disease, Colonic Neoplasms, Fatigue, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Genital Neoplasms, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Testicular Neoplasms, Acupuncture Therapy, Single-Blind Method, Treatment Failure, Hematologic Neoplasms
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