Acupuncture in Palliative Cancer Care

October 19, 2010 updated by: British Columbia Cancer Agency

A Feasibility Study in Acupuncture for Symptom Management in Palliative Care.

Research question: Can acupuncture improve symptom control and quality of life (QOL) in patients with advanced incurable cancer?

The purposes of this study is to investigate the feasibility of performing a randomized trial with acupuncture in improving symptom control and quality of life (QOL) in patients with advanced incurable cancer at the BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver Island Centre in Victoria.

We will:

  • Evaluate whether subjects who are receiving palliative care for cancer related symptoms can tolerate and complete to a course of acupuncture treatments.
  • Evaluate whether it is possible to conduct a study using acupuncture on cancer patients.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Patients with advanced cancer suffer from many symptoms which dramatically reduce their Quality of Life (QOL). There have been significant improvements in the management of pain, nausea and constipation, but other common symptoms such as fatigue, anxiety, depression, and a lack of well-being are not readily addressed by conventional therapies. As cancer patients usually present with numerous symptoms, it would be important to try to address all of these globally, instead of only treating individual symptoms that respond well to conventional therapy. Attempts at controlling individual symptoms can also give rise to iatrogenic effects. One well known example is constipation occurring in patients who are on opiate analgesics. Successful treatment from the caregiver's perspective is often scored against each individual symptom that is being treated. From the patient's point of view, it is the interplay of the whole treatment package that succeeds or fails in improving his QOL

In an attempt at treating all of the patient's symptoms, research into the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has been conducted to determine the utility of these treatments in addressing the unmet needs of many patients with cancer. There is preliminary evidence that acupuncture in particular, is successful at improving many cancer and treatment associated symptoms.

Given the potential to improve symptom control and QOL, it is thought that acupuncture should be investigated to assess its effectiveness and feasibility in symptomatic patients with advanced cancer. Acupuncture should be compared against another intervention, so that the control group would also be receiving attention to their symptoms. As supportive care has been shown to be helpful in ameliorating symptoms in terminal care, acupuncture will be compared against this intervention. Sham acupuncture is not considered to be a good comparison for acupuncture as it is not well tested, and its effects are often indistinguishable from acupuncture. Recently however, some studies have reported the use of novel techniques that prevent acupuncture-naïve patients from distinguishing between acupuncture treatment and placebo. These techniques have yet to be independently validated.

Objectives: 1. To determine feasibility of recruiting patients and running a randomized study that involves acupuncture at the BCCA-VIC. 2. To gather enough data to support a grant application to fund a larger study to look at the effectiveness of acupuncture as adjunctive treatment for the management of symptoms associated with palliative cancer care.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

20

Phase

  • Phase 3

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

  • Canada
    • British Columbia
      • Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, V8R 6V5
        • BC Cancer Agency - Vancouver Island Centre

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

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • patients receiving palliative therapy for incurable cancer
  • anticipated survival of at least 3 months
  • able to complete ESAS sheet unaided
  • ESAS of 5 or more in at least one of the following symptoms; fatigue, depression, anxiety and lack of wellbeing

Exclusion Criteria:

  • refuse to receive weekly acupuncture for 4 weeks
  • refuse to receive nursing support for 4 weeks
  • known to have impaired clotting of blood

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: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Nurse-led supportive care
Visit with a Palliative Care nurse once weekly for 4 weeks
Behavioral: Nurse-led supportive care
20-30 minutes of supportive attention from an experienced palliative nurse.
Experimental: Acupuncture
Patients received acupuncture once a week for 4 weeks.
Procedure: Acupuncture
Insertion of sterile, single-use acupuncture needles at 10-20 points including PC.6, HT.7, St.36, SP.6, and LR.3. Needles were connected to an electrical stimulator to mimick traditional manual stimulation with alternating patterns of stimulation for 20 minutes.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
The change in Edmonton Symptom Assessment Score (ESAS) after intervention (ESAS at baseline - ESAS at first follow up) will be analysed for each of the 4 symptoms (fatigue, anxiety, depression, a lack of well-being) under investigation. Results will be

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Determine the % of patients suitable, and the % of patients who consent to be recruited.
Determine the % of patients who complete all 4 intervention sessions.
Determine the duration of change in ESAS after intervention (ESAS at second and third follow-up - ESAS at first follow up).

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

British Columbia Cancer Agency

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Jan T Lim, MD, BC Cancer Agency and University of British Columbia

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

June 1, 2007

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2008

Study Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2008

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 13, 2006

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 13, 2006

First Posted (Estimate)

March 14, 2006

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

October 20, 2010

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 19, 2010

Last Verified

October 1, 2010

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • BCCAVIC Pal 1

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Neoplasms

Clinical Trials on Nurse-led supportive care

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Georgia

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

3
Subscribe