Acupuncture and Moxibustion for Cancer-Related Symptoms

Acupuncture and moxibustion is increasingly utilized in cancer management. Recent research has continued to provide new evidence to support the use of these complementary treatment modalities for the supportive care of cancer patients during and after conventional therapies. Apart from nausea and vomiting, for which the strongest evidence exists to support acupuncture treatment, there are multiple other symptoms that have been shown to benefit from acupuncture and moxibustion. These symptoms are commonly encountered by patients in their cancer journey and include the very debilitating cancer pain syndrome to the least apparent symptoms like anxiety, depression and cancer-related fatigue. The alleviation of these symptoms is essential to ensure better patients’ quality of life. Adoption of these acupuncture-related treatment modalities into clinical practice should be based on best evidence that ideally derived from well designed randomized controlled clinical trials. Non-invasive form of acupuncture point stimulation using transcutaneous electrical stimulation is also being investigated and the results of recent studies are promising. This chapter reviewed the current evidence from published laboratory and clinical trials to inform proper recommendation, utilization and further research of acupuncture and moxibustion management for cancer-related symptoms.