Clinical Edge Journal Scan

Acupuncture relieves AI-related joint pain for up to a year in BC patients


 

Key clinical point: In patients with early-stage breast cancer (BC), a 12-week true acupuncture (TA) treatment was more effective than sham acupuncture (SA) or no acupuncture (waiting list control; WC) treatment in reducing aromatase inhibitor (AI)-related joint pain through 52 weeks.

Major finding: At week 52, the TA group reported a significantly higher improvement in the mean Brief Pain Inventory Worst Pain (BPI-WP) item score than the SA group (difference 1.08 points; P = .01) or the WC group (difference 0.99 points; P = .03).

Study details : Findings are from a multicenter trial including 226 postmenopausal women with stage I-III BC receiving a third-generation AI who had a BPI-WP item score of ≥3 and were randomly assigned to receive TA, SA, or WC.

Disclosures: This study was supported by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health of the National Institutes of Health and other sources. Some authors declared being employees of or receiving payments and personal fees from several sources.

Source: Hershman DL et al. Comparison of acupuncture vs sham acupuncture or waiting list control in the treatment of aromatase inhibitor-related joint pain: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(11):e2241720 (Nov 11). Doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.41720

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