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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Acupuncture is being used more frequently in cancer care as an alternative to drugs to treat side effects from therapy, like nausea. But the relief patients seem to get from acupuncture treatment may be a placebo effect.
A new report from Sweden examines at the effectiveness of acupuncture. Researchers studied 215 patients with various types of cancer during radiotherapy. Participants got either active acupuncture or a sham treatment, which was an identical looking and feeling needle that retracted into the handle when it touched the skin. The patients documented their nausea and vomiting in diaries and completed questionnaires during and after the radiation therapy.
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Both groups of patients said they thought the treatment had been invasive and effective in reducing nausea. But results show 68 percent of patients who had acupuncture had nausea for an average of 19 days during radiation therapy, and 61 percent of patients who got the sham treatment had nausea for an average of 17 days. About 24 percent of the acupuncture group experienced vomiting compared to 28 percent of the sham group.
During the study, 58 patients had chemotherapy along with radiation therapy. Among them, the research reveals 82 percent of those who had acupuncture developed nausea compared to 80 percent of those who had the sham needles.
Our study may indicate that attitudes and expectations play a major role in the experience of the effect of the treatment. lead researcher Anna Enblom, from the Linkoping University of Sweden, was quoted as saying.
Researchers also report 66 percent of patients who got acupuncture and 71 percent of those who got the sham treatment said they would be very interested in having acupuncture again if they needed another round of radiation therapy.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: European Cancer Conference (ECCO 14) in Barcelona, Spain, September 23-27, 2007
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