Is Acupuncture an Effective Treatment for Cancer Pain?

A diagnosis of cancer brings with it many challenges. It's common for people with cancer to experience chronic pain as cancer grows and spreads to other parts of the body during the later stages. Even people who’ve localized cancer that hasn't spread may experience pain early on as the malignancy enlarges and presses on tissues and nerves. Plus, the treatments themselves, like surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, can cause pain and discomfort for some people. In fact, between 40% and 85% of people with cancer experience pain at some point after their diagnosis.

Although doctors prescribe medications to treat the chronic and sometimes debilitating pain that people with cancer experience, these medications have significant side effects. Especially in the elderly, pain medications are a risk because they increase the likelihood of falling and may cause disorientation or sleep disturbances. Exceeding the recommended dose can lead to more serious side effects, even respiratory suppression or death.

 Acupuncture as an Alternative to Pain medications

 Is there an alternative to pain medications for relieving pain in people with cancer? One treatment that can benefit pain control is acupuncture, the age-old practice of applying heat or pressure to specific points on the skin using thin needles. The idea beyond acupuncture is that applying pressure to these points, called acupoints, restores the normal flow of qi, the life force within each individual.

Acupuncture is effective for treating various conditions, and it can be helpful for chronic pain. How does it work? One theory is that applying fine needles to acupoints stimulates the release of brain chemicals that ease pain and improve mood. Therefore, acupuncture may have benefits that go beyond pain control, including improvements in mood. Plus, research finds acupuncture helps relieve nausea, another common complaint among people with cancer, especially those on chemotherapy.

Does science show that acupuncture is effective for cancer pain? A meta-analysis, a review of multiple studies looking at acupuncture for the treatment of cancer pain, published by JAMA Oncology in 2020, found that people who took analgesics, medications used to treat pain, and also had acupuncture therapy, were able to reduce the number of analgesics they took. This suggests that people with cancer who undergo acupuncture may require less pain medication.

 Other analyses of multiple studies, including randomized controlled trials, the highest quality studies, suggest that acupuncture is promising for treating cancer pain. At the very least, it may reduce the quantity of pain medications cancer patients need to control pain. 

 Acupuncture and Post-Surgical Pain

Studies have also looked at whether acupuncture helps with pain control after surgery for cancer. One study found that a combination of acupuncture and massage was effective in controlling pain after cancer surgery. Patients who got a combination of acupuncture and massage required less pain medication after surgery. Doctors often prescribe opioid medications after surgery, a treatment that causes side effects such as nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and fatigue. However, patients who got acupuncture and massage reported positive benefits that the medication-only group didn't, including mood improvements. Also, unlike opioid medications that can cause nausea, studies show acupuncture may be effective for relieving nausea after surgery.

The Bottom Line

Acupuncture could be an effective alternative to taking high doses of medications to relieve cancer pain. This is based on the fact that people were able to lower the amount of pain medications they needed after acupuncture. It's an approach that doesn't carry the same risks and negative side effects that pain medications, particularly opioids, do. It's important to use safer alternatives to pain medications whenever possible, and acupuncture is one alternative worth exploring.