Improving Fatigue: A Pilot Study of Acupuncture and Patient Education for Breast Cancer Survivors

July 5, 2016 updated by: Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
Based on the investigators clinical experience in patients with chronic disease (Hui, Hui, and Johnston, 2006; Hays et al 2005), a review of the literature (Johnston, Xiao and Hui 2007), and inspired by Vickers and colleagues (PMID: 15117996), the investigators carry out a pilot study that investigates if acupuncture combined with patient education will relieve fatigue in patients who have completed primary treatment for breast cancer.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

Patients will be randomly assigned to one of the two groups. Our hypothesis is that patients in the acupuncture/education group will experience greater relief of fatigue than those in the standard care group.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
12

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • California
      • Santa Monica, California, United States, 90404
        • UCLA Center for East-West Medicine

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 65 years (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Patient is between 18 and 65 years of age
  2. Patient has a rounded Brief Fatigue Inventory score of 4 or greater
  3. Patient is in a stable clinical condition

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Severe anemia (hemoglobin level less than 9 g/dL, hematocrit level less than 30, decline in hemoglobin of 2 g/dL in the previous month, or active treatment for anemia)
  2. Karnofsky Performance Status below 70
  3. Acupuncture treatment in the previous 6 months
  4. Fatigue before cancer diagnosis
  5. Patient is mentally incapacitated or unfit to provide informed consent or participate in an interview
  6. Patient has the potential for serious bleeding due to inherited diseases such as hemophilia
  7. Patient is taking medications that are either fatigue-inducing or have sedating properties
  8. Patient is unavailable by telephone

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: SUPPORTIVE_CARE
  • Allocation: RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: SINGLE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
ACTIVE_COMPARATOR: Acupuncture & educ
Patients will receive a total of 8 acupuncture treatments. In each of the first four sessions, they will also receive patient education.
Procedure: Acupuncture and patient education
Acupuncture involves the insertion of extremely thin needles, much thinner than those used for drawing blood, into very specific acupuncture points. Patients will receive a total of 8 acupuncture treatments, each lasting 50 minutes. Patient education will be delivered to individuals over the course of approximately 50 minutes for each of the four sessions; topics will include acupressure, nutrition, exercise, stress management, and lifestyle advice.
Other Names:
  • Traditional Chinese Medicine, Integrative East-West Medicine
NO_INTERVENTION: 2. Standard care
Patients in the control arm will continue to receive standard care from their physician.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Fatigue as measured by the Brief Fatigue Inventory
Time Frame: prior to beginning of treatment and after treatment ends. Up to an average of 44 weeks.
prior to beginning of treatment and after treatment ends. Up to an average of 44 weeks.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) as measured by the SF36
Time Frame: prior to beginning of treatment and after end of treatment. Up to an average of 44 weeks.
prior to beginning of treatment and after end of treatment. Up to an average of 44 weeks.
Pain as measured by an analog scale
Time Frame: prior to beginning of treatment and after conclusion of treatment. Up to an average of 44 weeks.
prior to beginning of treatment and after conclusion of treatment. Up to an average of 44 weeks.
Cognitive complaints as measured by the FACT-COG
Time Frame: prior to the beginning of treatment and after end of treatment. Up to an average of 44 weeks.
prior to the beginning of treatment and after end of treatment. Up to an average of 44 weeks.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Ka-Kit Hui, M.D., UCLA Center for East-West Medicine, 1033 Gayley Ave, Suite 111, Los Angeles, CA 90024

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
March 1, 2008

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
January 1, 2009

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
October 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
March 25, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
March 25, 2008

First Posted (ESTIMATE)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
March 28, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ESTIMATE)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
July 7, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
July 5, 2016

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
March 1, 2008

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • 06-08-010

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