Acupuncture for the Treatment of Taxane-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy in Breast Cancer Patients: A Pilot Trial

Table 5

Summary of the studies investigating the use of for the treatment of CIPN from the literature.

Study	Design of the study	Number of patients	Included cancer types	Intervention and control	Protocol of acupuncture	Acupoint	Outcome measurement	Effects of acupuncture/Other results
Shiqiang et al., 2017 [11]	Prospective, randomized, single-blind	27	Stomach, intestine, lung, ovary, breast	Acupuncture vs EA	Two courses of treatment: once per day for 7 days (starting at the day before chemotherapy) then 14 days off, for total of 21 days per course	LI4, LV3	PN, clinical symptoms, QoL, immune function	Improved/EA better than acupuncture
Donald et al., 2011 [12]	Retrospective, case series	18	MM, ALL, CML, colon, caecum, breast, ovary	Acupuncture, no control	Once a week for 6 weeks	SP6, ST36, LV3, LI4, BL60, Ba Feng, Ba Xie	Subjective symptoms	Improved (82%)
Schroeder et al., 2012 [13]	Prospective, non-randomized, non-blinded, pilot study	11	Breast, colon, bronchial, lymphoma	Acupuncture and best medical care vs best medical care	for 10 weeks	ST34, EX-LE12, Ba Feng	NCS	Improved/Acupuncture better than control
Wong et al., 2006 [18]	Prospective case series	5	Gynecological cancer	Acupuncture, no control	Two courses of treatment: once a week for 6 weeks, then 4 weeks off, for total of 16 weeks	CV6, ST36, LI11, Ba Feng, Ba Xie	Pain score, WHO CIPN grade	Improved
Ben-Horin et al., 2017 [26]	Retrospective analysis	30	Breast	Acupuncture and Reflexology (joint protocol)	1 to 2 weekly, no available duration	LU11, LI1, PC9, TE1, HT9, SI1, SP1, LR1, ST45, GB44, BL67, KI1	Symptom severity assessed by physician	Improved/Symptom-free at 6 months after starting treatment
Xiong et al., 2016 [27]	Prospective, randomized	90	Breast	Acupuncture vs mecobalamin injection vs acupoint injection	Once every 3 days for 10 times	LI11, LI4, ST36, SP6, SP10	NCS, hemorrheology indicators	Improved/Acupoint injection with mecobalamin better than acupuncture
Bao et al., 2011 [30]	Case report	1	MM	Acupunctur, no control	Once per week for 6 treatments, then every other week for 4 treatments, then once every three weeks for 2 treatments, then once per month for 2 treatments, for total 14 acupuncture treatments	Shen men, point zero, two additional auricular acupuncture point, LI4, SJ5, LI11, ST40, Ba Feng	VAS pain score	Improved
Jeong et al. (this study)	Prospective, single arm, pilot study	10	Breast	Acupuncture, no control	Three times a week for 4 weeks	LI4, LI11, ST36, LV3, Ba Xie, Ba Feng	NPSI, NCS, SF-36	Improved

CIPN, chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy; EA, electroacupuncture; PN, peripheral neuropathy; QoL, quality of life; MM, multiple myeloma; ALL, acute lymphoblastic lymphoma; CML, chronic myeloid lymphoma; WHO, World Health Organization; NCS, nerve conduction study; VAS, visual analogue scale; NPSI, Neuropathic Pain Symptom Inventory; SF-36, 36-Item Short From Health Survey.