Treatment of Hot Flushes in Breast Cancer Patients With Acupuncture

August 20, 2015 updated by: Vejle Hospital

In a randomized 3-group clinical study acupuncture is used for the relief of menopausal hot flushes and sleep disturbances in women treated for breastcancer.

The three groups consists of 35 women given acupuncture once a week five times and 35 women given shamacupuncture once a week five times and 35 women with no kind of treatment. Se-estradiol and endorphin is measured before and after the acupuncture.

We want to state that acupuncture given five times once a week has a significant better effect on hot flushes and sleeping disturbances than shamacupuncture or no treatment at all.

We also want to measure if there are any changes in se-estradiol and endorphine

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Detailed Description

Breast cancer patients often have a higher prevalance of menopausal symptoms with hor flushes and sleeping disturbances than women in the general population, and hormone replacement therapy is not considered suitable for breast cancer patients because an increase in oestrogen is contraindicated.

There has been some evidence that acupuncture is suitable treatment for hot flushes and therefore we had a small pilotproject where 25 women treated for breast cancer were given a course of classical body acupuncture with one 15 min treatment session per week for 5 weeks. The effekt was remarkable.

We want to prove if this effekt is significantly better than shamacupuncture or to no treatment at all.

This is a prospective, randomized and doubbleblinded study:

35 women get classical body acupuncture once a week 5 times 35 women get shamacupuncture once a week 5 times 35 women get no acupuncture. Se-estradiol and se-endorphine will be measure before start of the first acupuncture and after the first and fifth acupuncture. The women with no treatment will have blodsamples too in the beginning and at the end of the fifth week.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

94

Phase

  • Phase 1

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

    • Kabbeltoft 25
      • Vejle, Kabbeltoft 25, Denmark, 7100 Vejle
        • Vejle Hospital

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

35 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Women older than 35 years treated for breastcancer having hot flushes and sleeping disturbances.It is not allowed to take estrogen as tablets or plaster.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Failing to give consent
  • Any use of estrogen as tablets or plaster

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: Factorial Assignment
  • Masking: Triple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: No intervention
Sham Comparator: Sham acupuncture
Active Comparator: Real acupuncture
Other Names:
  • Acupuncture, hot flushes

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
using a hot flushes rating scale.
Time Frame: 12 weeks
12 weeks
Sleep disturbances yes or no
Time Frame: 12 weeks
12 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Measuring se-estrogen and se-endorhine before and after acupuncture
Time Frame: 12 weeks
12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Claus Bisgaard, Consultant, Vejle Hospital

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.

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

February 1, 2007

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2010

Study Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 22, 2007

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 22, 2007

First Posted (Estimate)

January 23, 2007

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

August 21, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 20, 2015

Last Verified

August 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

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.

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