Acupuncture reduces joint pain related to aromatase inhibitors among women with breast cancer: JAMA

A new study conducted by Dawn Hershman and team found that women with aromatase inhibitors (AI) related joint pain who received 12 weeks of true acupuncture (TA) reported less pain at 52 weeks compared to controls, indicating the therapy's potential for long-term success. The findings of the study were published in the Journal of American Medical Association.

The efficacy of aromatase inhibitors in treating hormone-sensitive breast cancer has been shown; however, arthralgias (pain and stiffness) cause more than 50% of patients to stop taking their medication. In this 52-week study, researchers looked at how acupuncture affected the amount of joint pain caused by AI.

For this study a randomized clinical trial comparing TA with sham acupuncture (SA) or a waiting list control was carried out at 11 locations around the US from May 1, 2012, to February 29, 2016, with the final date of follow-up set for September 5, 2017. (WC). Women who were taking an AI and had a score of 3 or above on the BPI-WP item for the worst pain qualified as having early-stage breast cancer. 2:1:1 randomization was used to assign participants to the TA (n = 110), SA (n = 59), or WC (n = 57) groups. In the TA and SA protocols, there were two sessions per week for the first six weeks (a total of twelve sessions), then one session per week for the following six weeks. Participants who were randomly assigned to WC didn't get any help. Ten acupuncture sessions were made available to each participant, to be used any time between weeks 24 and 52. The 52-week BPI-WP score served as the main end point in this long-term evaluation, and it was compared by a study group using linear regression after being adjusted for baseline pain and stratification factors.

The key findings of this study were:

1. 191 (84.5%) of the 226 randomly assigned women finished the experiment. 52-week mean BPI-WP scores were 1.08 points lower in the TA group compared to the SA group (P =.01) and 0.99 points lower in the TA group compared to the WC group (P =.03) in a linear regression.

2. Additionally, the 52-week BPI pain interference scores in the TA group were statistically significantly lower than those in the SA group.

3. Twelve (13.2%) TA, six (11.3%) SA, and five (10.6%) WC patients reported receiving acupuncture between 24 and 52 weeks.

Reference:

Hershman, D. L., Unger, J. M., Greenlee, H., Capodice, J., Lew, D. L., Darke, A., Minasian, L. M., Fisch, M. J., Henry, N. L., & Crew, K. D. (2022). Comparison of Acupuncture vs Sham Acupuncture or Waiting List Control in the Treatment of Aromatase Inhibitor–Related Joint Pain. In JAMA Network Open (Vol. 5, Issue 11, p. e2241720). American Medical Association (AMA). https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.41720