Acupuncture for Symptom Control in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Patients

December 13, 2021 updated by: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Acupuncture for Symptom Control in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Patients: A Pilot Study

This is a prospective randomized controlled trial to obtain preliminary data for the design of a future definitive efficacy study. A randomized controlled trial is needed because comparison to historical data would be biased. The investigators will use sham acupuncture as the control to account for effect from attention from and interaction with the therapist.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

63

Phase

  • 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

    • New York
      • New York, New York, United States, 10065
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

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

21 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age 21 or above (those age below 21 are usually treated in the Pediatric Transplant Service)
  • Diagnosis of multiple myeloma
  • Scheduled to receive conditioning chemotherapy followed by upfront or salvage autologous peripheral blood hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Absolute neutrophil count less than 200/microliter
  • Platelet count less than 20,000/microliter
  • Acupuncture treatment in the preceding 4 weeks prior to Day 1

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: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Acupuncture
Acupuncture treatment once daily inpatient for 5 consecutive days starting at on the day after chemotherapy plus usual pre- and post-transplantation care.
Patients with multiple myeloma undergoing conditioning myeloablative chemotherapy followed by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Patients will be randomized to acupuncture or sham acupuncture. Acupuncture treatment will be delivered once daily starting on Day -1 (Day -2 is the day chemotherapy starts). Acupuncture will continue for 5 days, or, when the patient's absolute neutrophil count drops below 200/microliter or platelet count drops below 20,000/microliter, whichever is sooner. Sham acupuncture will be delivered on the same schedule. Regardless of group assignment, every patient will receive the same usual prevention and treatment regimen for nausea, vomiting, anxiety, insomnia and fatigue that other patients who are undergoing conditioning chemotherapy in preparation for HSCT will receive in the Transplant Service.
Sham Comparator: Sham acupuncture
Sham acupuncture once daily inpatient for 5 consecutive days starting at on the day after chemotherapy plus usual pre- and post-transplantation care.
Patients with multiple myeloma undergoing conditioning myeloablative chemotherapy followed by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Patients will be randomized to acupuncture or sham acupuncture. Acupuncture treatment will be delivered once daily starting on Day -1 (Day -2 is the day chemotherapy starts)Acupuncture will continue for 5 days, or, when the patient's absolute neutrophil count drops below 200/microliter or platelet count drops below 20,000/microliter, whichever is sooner. Sham acupuncture will be delivered on the same schedule. Regardless of group assignment, every patient will receive the same usual prevention and treatment regimen for nausea, vomiting, anxiety, insomnia and fatigue that other patients who are undergoing conditioning chemotherapy in preparation for HSCT will receive in the Transplant Service.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
whether acupuncture reduces common symptoms
Time Frame: 2 years
In patients undergoing chemotherapy prior to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The primary endpoint is the area-under-curve (AUC) for MDASI total score from Day -2 to Day 5. MDASI scores are assessed daily by having the patient fill out the questionnaire. Severity is assessed for the 13 core MDASI symptom items (pain, fatigue, nausea, disturbed sleep, distress etc..) AUC for MDASI total score from Day -2 to Day 5 will be compared between the acupuncture group and the sham acupuncture group.
2 years

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
to assess the effect size for each symptom
Time Frame: 2 years
Effect size for each symptom will be calculated descriptively. To determine whether baseline characteristics predict response to acupuncture, each will be added as an interaction term to the primary model. The following predictors will be explored: inpatient vs outpatient treatment, upfront vs. salvage transplantation, age, baseline MDASI score, pro-inflammatory cytokine levels, and use of symptom control medications (yes / no).
2 years

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Gary Deng, MD, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

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

March 1, 2013

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 10, 2021

Study Completion (Actual)

December 10, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 13, 2013

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 13, 2013

First Posted (Estimate)

March 15, 2013

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

December 14, 2021

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 13, 2021

Last Verified

December 1, 2021

More Information

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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