Different modalities of accupuncture reduce chronic pain in cancer survivors: JAMA

USA: Electroacupuncture and auricular acupuncture may help in greater reduction of chronic pain versus usual care in cancer survivors with chronic musculoskeletal pain, finds a recent study in the journal JAMA Oncology. Further, auricular acupuncture was not found to be noninferior to electroacupuncture and patients who received it experienced more adverse effects. 

In the current scenario of opioid crisis, challenges arise for cancer pain management. The use of acupuncture is shown to provide clinical benefits for chronic nonmalignant pain, but its effectiveness in cancer survivors remains uncertain. Jun J. Mao, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, and colleagues, therefore, aimed to determine the effectiveness of electroacupuncture or auricular acupuncture for chronic musculoskeletal pain in cancer survivors.

For the purpose, the researchers performed Personalized Electroacupuncture vs Auricular Acupuncture Comparativeness Effectiveness (PEACE) trial. The trial was a randomized clinical trial that was conducted from March 2017 to October 2019 across an urban academic cancer center and 5 suburban sites in New York and New Jersey.

The study included 360 adults with a prior cancer diagnosis but no current evidence of disease, reported musculoskeletal pain for at least 3 months, and self-reported pain intensity on the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) ranging from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain imaginable).