The use of acupuncture in the treatment of the main side effects of tamoxifen used in the management of carcinoma of the breast

By Elaine B Brown - MSc in Acupuncture

Abstract

One of the most widely used drugs within oncology management within recent years is tamoxifen, reducing relapse risk and mortality figures by 25% and 17% respectively at 5 year survival. However the associated vasomotor symptoms go largely untreated by the western medicine domain. However evidence suggests that acupuncture may be of benefit of reducing or alleviating the associated vasomotor symptoms as it does so with menopausal vasomotor symptoms. Trends within the James Cook University Hospital (JCUH), Middlesbrough for acupuncture referral provided a basis and need for this study. Normal selection of acupuncture points is not appropriate for this consortium of breast cancer patients in this scenario. The main reasoning for this is to prevent the possibility of inducing secondary lymphoedema.

The study took the form of a pilot study to gauge for a larger scale Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) in the future. It was carried out as a Randomised Single Blind Comparative study. It employed two interventions (A) acupuncture (B) placebo acupuncture (utilising placebo acupuncture needles). Observations following the intervention process were carried out using Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) and MYMOP2 surveys. The results of which were assigned to a t-Test, due to the small sample sized obtained.

Overall the use of acupuncture showed to be more statistically significant than that of placebo acupuncture, indicating the former as being successful in treating vasomotor symptoms induced by tamoxifen.

The sample size overall is too small to show great relevance. However the prospect of carrying out a Randomised Control Trial is feasible from the data collected from this pilot study.