Accessing Acupuncture in Supporting Cancer Treatment and Recovery
By Naomi Jansson, Acupuncturist
Having worked as a registered nurse in hospital Oncology I have a depth of insight and experience to offer those navigating an Oncology journey. As an experienced Chinese medicine practitioner specialising in compassionate, evidence-informed acupuncture care for people living with and beyond cancer. I provides individualised acupuncture treatment plans targeted at reducing chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting, ease pain, improve sleep and energy, support appetite and manage common chemo side-effects such as fatigue, neuropathy and insomnia.
Chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting — multiple systematic reviews and practice guidelines conclude that acupuncture/acupressure can reduce chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and may be considered as an adjunctive option.
Integrative Oncology Society
Cochrane Complementary Medicine
MDPI
Cancer-related fatigue — a large pragmatic randomised controlled trial (302 breast-cancer patients) found that weekly acupuncture for six weeks improved general, physical and mental aspects of fatigue versus enhanced usual care. Systematic reviews also report promising results for acupuncture in cancer-related fatigue.
Research Explorer
SAGE Journals
Cancer pain & analgesic use — a systematic review and meta-analysis found that acupuncture and/or acupressure were associated with reduced cancer-related pain and lower analgesic consumption (moderate quality evidence overall).
JAMA Network
Europe PMC
Sleep / cancer-related insomnia — recent systematic reviews and network meta-analyses report that acupuncture may improve sleep quality in people with cancer-related insomnia, though studies vary in size and protocols and further high-quality trials are continuing.
Frontiers
BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care
Appetite & other chemo-side effects (including neuropathy / symptom clusters) — pilot and RCT data indicate auricular and body acupuncture can improve appetite and reduce symptom clusters (pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance, neuropathy) in some cancer populations. Larger confirmatory trials are emerging.
Semantic Scholar PDFs
SpringerLink
ScienceDirect
Safety & practice guidance — international integrative-oncology guidance and published safe-practice recommendations describe how acupuncture can be delivered safely in oncology settings (screening for low platelets, immunosuppression, needle technique, co-ordination with oncology team). Practitioners should follow these recommendations and liaise with the patient’s oncology team.
As a dual Integrative clinical Nurse and chinese medicine doctor my treatments are offered as a safe adjunct to conventional oncology care and are coordinated with each patient’s oncology team
Key References on Acupuncture in Oncology
Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV)
Garcia, M. K., McQuade, J., Haddad, R., Patel, S., Lee, R., Yang, P., Palmer, J. L., & Cohen, L. (2013). Systematic review of acupuncture in cancer care: a synthesis of the evidence. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 31(7), 952–960. https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2012.43.5818
Ezzo, J., Vickers, A., Richardson, M. A., Allen, C., Dibble, S., Issell, B. F., Lao, L., Pearl, M., Ramirez, G., Roscoe, J., Shen, J., Shivnan, J., Streitberger, K., Treish, I., & Zhang, G. (2006). Acupuncture-point stimulation for chemotherapy-induced nausea or vomiting. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (2), CD002285. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD002285.pub2
Cancer-related fatigue
Molassiotis, A., Sylt, P., & Diggins, H. (2007). The management of cancer-related fatigue after chemotherapy with acupuncture and acupressure: a randomised controlled trial. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 15(4), 228–237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2006.09.009
Molassiotis, A., Bardy, J., Finnegan-John, J., Mackereth, P., Ryder, D. W., Filshie, J., & Richardson, A. (2012). Acupuncture for cancer-related fatigue in patients with breast cancer: a pragmatic randomised controlled trial. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 30(36), 4470–4476. https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2012.41.6222
Chiu, H.-Y., Hsieh, Y.-J., Tsai, P.-S. (2017). Systematic review and meta-analysis of acupuncture to reduce cancer-related fatigue. Supportive Care in Cancer, 25(3), 709–718. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-016-3449-8
To learn more about Naomi Jansson and her services, click here