PEACE: Comparing Chronic Pain Treatment Options (PEACE)

December 2, 2025 updated by: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Personalize Electro-acupuncture vs. Auricular-acupuncture Comparative Effectiveness

The purpose of this study is to compare two types of acupuncture with usual care on treating chronic pain. This study has three groups. Two groups will received acupuncture. One group will receive usual standard of care for 12 weeks and then will receive acupuncture. Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese technique of using very thin needles inserted in the skin to treat different symptoms and illness, and to promote healing. Each group will undergo a different method of needle administration.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

360

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

  • United States
    • New Jersey
      • Basking Ridge, New Jersey, United States, 07920
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Basking Ridge
      • Middletown, New Jersey, United States, 07748
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth
      • Montvale, New Jersey, United States, 07645
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Bergen
    • New York
      • Commack, New York, United States, 11725
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Commack
      • Harrison, New York, United States, 10604
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Westchester
      • New York, New York, United States, 10065
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
      • Rockville Centre, New York, United States, 11570
        • Memorial Sloan Kettering Rockville 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

14 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • English speaking
  • Age >/= 18 years or older
  • Having musculoskeletal pain, defined as regional (joints, extremities, back, neck) or more generalized (fibromyalgia or chronic widespread pain)
  • Having a pain rating of 4 or greater in worst pain on a 1-10 numerical rating scale in the preceding week (Patients with a neuropathic component to their pain that involves the extremities or back will be eligible)
  • Having had pain for at least 3 months and at least 15 days with pain in the preceding 30 days
  • A diagnosis of cancer with no restrictions placed on type of cancer, other than that patients with metastatic disease will be excluded. Eligibility criteria are not restricted to MSK confirmed biopsy/diagnosis. Participating institution's testing is sufficient for other study sites.
  • Complete active treatment (surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiotherapy) at least one month prior to study initiation (patients on continued hormone treatment will not be excluded).

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Have non-musculoskeletal pain syndromes (headache, facial pain, chest pain, visceral abdominal pain) if these are the sole source of pain, but can be present as co-morbid conditions as long as a patient has a primary musculoskeletal pain condition defined s above.
  • Inflammatory arthritis that require disease modifying drugs (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis)
  • Phantom limb pain
  • Patients with a history of metastatic cancer who are not currently NED
  • Have a pending pain-related VA or social security or worker's comp disability claim by self-report
  • Have an implanted electronically charged medical device

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
Active Comparator: Electro-Acupuncture (EA) Procedure
Participants will receive 10 treatment of EA acupuncture over the course of 10 weeks (with a maximum of 2 treatments per week).
Procedure: Electro-Acupuncture (EA)
Participants will receive 10 treatment of Electro-Acupuncture over the course of 10 weeks (with a maximum of 2 treatments per week). The acupuncturist will insert acupuncture needles in at least 4 local points around the body with the most pain and at least 4 distant points to address the patient's baseline constitution. The needles will be electrically stimulate at 2 Hz by connecting to a TENS unit. The needles will be in place for 30 minutes.
Active Comparator: Battle Field Acupuncture (BFA) Procedure
Participants will receive 10 treatment of BFA acupuncture over the course of 10 weeks (with a maximum of 2 treatments per week).
Procedure: Battle Field Acupuncture (BFA)
Participants will receive 10 treatment of Battle Field Acupuncture over the course of 10 weeks (with a maximum of 2 treatments per week). Acupuncture needles will be placed in the participants' ears. The total duration of BFA delivery is about 10 to 20 minutes depending on how many needles are used in the procedure.
Active Comparator: Wait List Control (WLC) Usual Care Procedure
Subjects in the WLC group continue to receive their standard medical care and pain management as prescribed by their physicians or other health care providers, including analgesic medications. After the 12 week follow up period, patients in the WLC will receive up to ten treatments of either EA or BFA based on their personal preference.
Procedure: Electro-Acupuncture (EA)
Participants will receive 10 treatment of Electro-Acupuncture over the course of 10 weeks (with a maximum of 2 treatments per week). The acupuncturist will insert acupuncture needles in at least 4 local points around the body with the most pain and at least 4 distant points to address the patient's baseline constitution. The needles will be electrically stimulate at 2 Hz by connecting to a TENS unit. The needles will be in place for 30 minutes.
Procedure: Battle Field Acupuncture (BFA)
Participants will receive 10 treatment of Battle Field Acupuncture over the course of 10 weeks (with a maximum of 2 treatments per week). Acupuncture needles will be placed in the participants' ears. The total duration of BFA delivery is about 10 to 20 minutes depending on how many needles are used in the procedure.
Device: Wait List Control (WLC)
After the waiting period (12 weeks from randomization), participants in the WLC will receive up to ten treatments of either EA or BFA based on their personal preference.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Pain intensity and pain interference will be measured by using the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) measure.
Time Frame: 12 weeks
12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Jun Mao, MD, MSCE, 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.

General Publications

Helpful Links

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 (Actual)

November 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Estimated)

November 1, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

November 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 28, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 30, 2016

First Posted (Estimated)

December 1, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

December 4, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 2, 2025

Last Verified

December 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 16-1579

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

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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