Acupuncture Eases Nausea Caused by Cancer Therapy

　　
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - One of the oldest medical procedures in the world may ease the side effects of modern-day cancer therapy, new research suggests.

In a study of breast cancer patients, investigators discovered that acupuncture helped control the nausea and vomiting caused by the very high doses of chemotherapy needed to destroy the immune system prior to a bone marrow transplant.

Among 104 women undergoing high-dose chemotherapy, those who received acupuncture along with anti-nausea drugs were less likely to get sick from treatment compared with those on drugs alone. The women received what is known as electroacupuncture, in which electrical pulses are delivered to the body through traditional acupuncture needles.

Researchers led by Dr. Joannie Shen of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, report the findings in the December 6th issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (news - web sites).

Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese therapy in which hair-thin needles are inserted into the skin at particular points on the body. Tradition holds that acupuncture relieves pain and promotes normal body function by improving the flow of energy along particular body pathways, or ``meridians.'' Recent research has suggested the procedure can control nausea and vomiting, including morning sickness.

In the current study, all of the women received anti-nausea drugs. Some received electroacupuncture to their forearms once a day for 5 days; another group received ``minimal needling'' with no electrical stimulation; and women in the third group received only drugs.

According to Shen's team, there has been some concern about drug interactions among patients on chemotherapy and anti-nausea medication. Some patients, the authors note, are unable to take both therapies at once.

For women in this study, the addition of electroacupuncture showed significant benefits. Over the 5 days of treatment, these women suffered less than half the number of episodes of nausea and vomiting (a median of 5 episodes) compared with women on drugs alone (median of 15 episodes). Women on minimal needling had more bouts of nausea than women on electroacupuncture did, but fewer episodes than those on traditional therapy (median of 10 episodes).

The ``complex, multifactorial and severe nature'' of chemotherapy-induced nausea suggests that no one treatment will completely control it, Shen and colleagues report. Electroacupuncture may help by affecting certain chemicals of the central nervous system, they note.