Adjuvant Acupuncture Care for Breast Cancer Patients Experiencing Side Effects From Chemotherapy (Acubreast)

University Hospital of North Norway

Status: Terminated

Conditions: Breast Cancer

Treatments: Procedure: Acupuncture therapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00885183

REK NORD 77/08

Details and patient eligibility

About

Breast cancer patients report many symptoms while undergoing conventional care, including nausea/vomiting, fatigue, pain, depression and anxiety. Existing interventions to address these common side effects of treatment are limited. Patients diagnosed with cancer frequently seek complementary medicine (CAM), and there is a need to investigate potential effects of CAM therapies. This phased pilot and feasibility study has two aims:

1. Develop an acupuncture treatment protocol for adjuvant acupuncture care for breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy using structured interviews with established acupuncture teams in Norway.
2. Implement the treatment protocol in a pilot study to evaluate outcome measures, effect sizes and acceptability of acupuncture care delivered alongside conventional care.

Study results will support the design of future research; including a Phase III randomised controlled trial.

Enrollment: 10 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Females, 18 years or older with early stage breast cancer, no previous chemotherapy and no metastatic disease

Exclusion criteria

• Needle phobia, use of anticoagulant drugs, inability to comply with study regimen

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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10 participants in 2 patient groups

acupuncture therapy

Experimental group

Description:

Breast cancer patients are randomised to additional 12 acupuncture treatment sessions while undergoing standard chemotherapy

Treatment:

Procedure: Acupuncture therapy

Usual care

Other group

Description:

Control group (usual care) receives standard chemotherapy alone

Treatment:

Procedure: Acupuncture therapy