This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Publisher's Note Erratum (v26,p1572) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Save to my personal folders Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Deng, G. Articles by Cassileth, B. R. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Deng, G. Articles by Cassileth, B. R.

Randomized, Controlled Trial of Acupuncture for the Treatment of Hot Flashes in Breast Cancer Patients

Gary Deng, Andrew J. Vickers, K. Simon Yeung, Gabriella M. D'Andrea, Han Xiao, Alexandra S. Heerdt, Steven Sugarman, Tiffany Troso-Sandoval, Andrew D. Seidman, Clifford A. Hudis, Barrie R. Cassileth

From the Integrative Medicine Service, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Breast Cancer Medicine Service, and Breast Cancer Surgery Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

Address reprint requests to Gary Deng, MD, PhD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1429 First Ave, New York, NY 10021; e-mail: dengg{at}mskcc.org

Purpose: To determine the immediate and long-term effects of true acupuncture versus sham acupuncture on hot flash frequency in women with breast cancer.

Patients and Methods: Seventy-two women with breast cancer experiencing three or more hot flashes per day were randomly assigned to receive either true or sham acupuncture. Interventions were given twice weekly for 4 consecutive weeks. Hot flash frequency was evaluated at baseline, at 6 weeks, and at 6 months after initiation of treatment. Patients initially randomly assigned to the sham group were crossed over to true acupuncture starting at week 7.

Results: The mean number of hot flashes per day was reduced from 8.7 (standard deviation [SD], 3.9) to 6.2 (SD, 4.2) in the true acupuncture group and from 10.0 (SD, 6.1) to 7.6 (SD, 5.7) in the sham group. True acupuncture was associated with 0.8 fewer hot flashes per day than sham at 6 weeks, but the difference did not reach statistical significance (95% CI, –0.7 to 2.4; P = .3). When participants in the sham acupuncture group were crossed over to true acupuncture, a further reduction in the frequency of hot flashes was seen. This reduction in hot flash frequency persisted for up to 6 months after the completion of treatment.

Conclusion: Hot flash frequency in breast cancer patients was reduced following acupuncture. However, when compared with sham acupuncture, the reduction by the acupuncture regimen as provided in the current study did not reach statistical significance. We cannot exclude the possibility that a longer and more intense acupuncture intervention could produce a larger reduction of these symptoms.

The study was supported by Grant No. CA098565 from the National Cancer Institute.

Authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and author contributions are found at the end of this article.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Hickey, C. Saunders, A. Partridge, N. Santoro, H. Joffe, and V. Stearns Practical clinical guidelines for assessing and managing menopausal symptoms after breast cancer Ann. Onc., June 16, 2008; (2008) mdn353v2. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. S. Carpenter and D. Flockhart Flash Points J. Clin. Oncol., December 10, 2007; 25(35): 5546 - 5547. [Full Text] [PDF]