Acupuncture in adults with Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy: a systematic review

Abstract

Objective: to analyze and synthesize knowledge about the effect of acupuncture on chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy symptoms in adults with cancer. Method: the method used was a Systematic Review. Potential articles were identified by searching in the PubMed of National Library of Medicine, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Embase, Cochrane Central and Scopus. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses strategy, 607 articles were identified. After removing the duplicates, all titles and abstracts were reviewed, and seven articles were selected for full review. After the full review, five studies were selected for inclusion. Results: of the five articles included, four were cohort studies and one was a quasi-experimental study. All articles showed that acupuncture was associated with an improvement in the peripheral neuropathy, but the type of protocol, use of medications, time of treatment, and different outcome measures made it difficult to compare the studies. Conclusion: the use of acupuncture appears to be associated with an improvement in the symptoms of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy and has no side effects. In order to improve the evidence about benefits associated with acupuncture, more experimental studies using both subjective and objective measures are needed.

Oxaliplatin, an Anticancer Agent, Causes Erectile Dysfunction in Rats due to Endothelial Dysfunction

“…L-OHP (Yakult Honsha Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) was dissolved in a 5% glucose solution just before administration. The rats were divided into 2 groups: The L-OHP group rats (n = 21) were intravenously administered 4 mg/kg body weight of L-OHP on Days 1,2,8,9,15,16,22,and 23. 10 In the Control rats (n = 21), the same volume of 5% glucose solution was injected using the same dosing schedule.…”

“…7,8 Neuropathy is a common adverse effect of L-OHP therapy and is a major concern in that it may negatively influence the quality of life. 9 The mechanism of action underlying the effect of L-OHP on erectile function remains unclear; therefore, measures for preserving the erectile function of cancer survivors have not yet been developed. Therefore, in this study, we investigated erectile function in an animal model after administration of the anticancer agent L-OHP.…”

Efficacy of the complementary therapies in the management of cancer pain in palliative care: A systematic review

“…Moreover Acupuncture is one of the most popular forms of complementary medicine (29,55) and its use is mainly linked to improving the psychological symptoms through sympathomimetic pathways (56) . Traditional…”

“…Chinese Acupuncture (TCA) is used as a complement to the conventional treatment for several pathological conditions and its focus is to relieve symptoms by reorganizing the body's energy, aiming at leading to selfhealing (55) . Sham Acupuncture (SA), also called placebo, can be understood as an intervention performed in a false way, as it is performed outside the points established by the TCA (57) .…”

“…Acupuncture is one of the most popular forms of complementary medicine ( 29 , 55 ) and its use is mainly linked to improving the psychological symptoms through sympathomimetic pathways ( 56 ) . Traditional Chinese Acupuncture (TCA) is used as a complement to the conventional treatment for several pathological conditions and its focus is to relieve symptoms by reorganizing the body’s energy, aiming at leading to self-healing ( 55 ) . Sham Acupuncture (SA), also called placebo, can be understood as an intervention performed in a false way, as it is performed outside the points established by the TCA ( 57 ) .…”