A trial of acupuncture for nerve damage symptoms that chemotherapy can cause (ACUFOCIN)

The trial team found that adding acupuncture to usual treatment helped. It improved the symptoms of nerve damage caused by chemotherapy. 

Trial design
120 people took part in the trial:

• 61 people had breast cancer
• 9 people had myeloma 
• 48 people had gastro intestinal cancer such as stomach or bowel cancer 
• 2 people had ovarian cancer 

The trial included people:

• who had moderate to severe nerve damage (peripheral neuropathy) caused by chemotherapy
• whose peripheral neuropathy symptoms were troublesome and affected their quality of life 

Everyone taking part rated the symptoms that bothered them the most. They used a measure called the Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile (MYMOP 2 score). This was on a scale from 0 to 6. They could join if their symptoms were quite bad. This meant having a score from 3 to 6. 

Before the trial started:

• 33 people had a score of 3 or 4 (28%)
• 87 people had a score of 5 or 6 (73%)

The trial doctor also rated how bad the nerve damage was before treatment started. They found:

• in 103 people this was moderate 
• in 17 people this was bad to severe 

The people taking part were put into a treatment group at random:

• half had usual treatment
• half had usual treatment and acupuncture 

Diagram 1

Everyone had treatment as usual for peripheral neuropathy. The type they had depended on their specific symptoms. 

Those having acupuncture had 10 sessions with a trained acupuncturist. The sessions took place once a week. The treatment period was 10 weeks.

Results
The team looked at how well treatment worked. They had the results for 108 people. Of those:

• 54 had usual treatment and acupuncture
• 56 had usual treatment

Acupuncture treatment ended at week 10. At this timepoint, the trial doctors reported if the nerve damage was mild, moderate or severe. They found the nerve damage symptoms had improved in: 

• 27 out of 53 people who had acupuncture and usual treatment (51%)
• 4 out of 56 people who had usual treatment alone (7%)

Bar Chart 1

At the same timepoint (10 weeks), the team looked to see whose symptoms score had improved by 2 points or more. This was a patient reported outcome measure or PROM. This looked at how patients rated their own symptoms.

They found this happened in:

• 36 out of 54 people who had acupuncture and usual treatment (67%)
• 18 out of 55 people who had usual treatment alone (33%)

Bar Chart 2

Quality of life and pain scores 
Everyone filled in a questionnaire before starting treatment and several times during the trial. The questionnaire asked about side effects and how they had been feeling. This is called a quality of life study .

The team looked at how people rated their quality of life. When treatment finished, they found people who had had acupuncture reported a better quality of life.

Everyone taking part also kept a pain diary. They recorded their pain levels once a week on a pain scale. This was on a scale from 0 to 10. A score of 0 means no pain at all and 10 means the worst pain you can imagine.

At week 10 the team looked to see if people’s pain levels had changed. Those who had acupuncture reported their pain was much better compared to those who had only usual care. 

Conclusion
The team found that in this small trial adding a 10 week course of acupuncture to usual treatment helped. It improved the symptoms of peripheral neuropathy that chemotherapy can cause. 

Where this information comes from    
We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed ) but may not have been published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the research team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.