Ear Acupuncture During Chemotherapy Infusion for Breast Cancer, a Feasibility Study

April 14, 2025 updated by: Weidong Lu, MB, MPH, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
This research study is evaluating ear acupuncture as a possible treatment to reduce symptoms related to receiving chemotherapy.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Chemotherapy drugs used to treat cancer can cause many symptoms. Some of the most common symptoms of receiving chemotherapy are nausea, vomiting, and anxiety. These symptoms can affect the quality of life of cancer patients. Medications can help ease these, but many patients continue to experience symptoms despite these treatments.

Acupuncture has been studied in clinical trials in cancer patients and has been shown to be helpful for management of pain, nerve damage from chemotherapy, and nausea.

Ear acupuncture is a type of acupuncture that involves the stimulation of points on the external ear. A few studies have suggested that ear acupuncture may help to reduce symptoms of nausea and anxiety during chemotherapy.

This study is being done to evaluate the potential benefits of using ear acupuncture to reduce symptoms like nausea and anxiety for women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

26

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
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02115
        • Dana Farber Cancer Institute

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

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • History of histologically or cytologically proven Stage I-III breast cancer receiving intravenous chemotherapy on an every 14 days or every 21 days schedule
  • Age ≥ 18 years
  • Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0 or 1
  • Signed informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Receiving weekly chemotherapy
  • Unstable cardiac disease or myocardial infarction within 6 months prior to study entry
  • Uncontrolled seizure disorder
  • Pregnancy or potential pregnancy
  • Active clinically significant uncontrolled infection
  • Prior use of acupuncture within 3 months prior to the study entry
  • Uncontrolled major psychiatric disorders, such as major depression or psychosis
  • Metastatic breast or other cancer

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: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Acupuncture
Patients will receive a 30-minute session of a standardized ear acupuncture treatment Acupuncture needles will be gently manipulated to increase stimulation For each ear acupuncture session, the patient will have ear acupuncture therapy administered to each ear
Device: Acupuncture
Acupuncture has been studied in clinical trials in cancer patients and has been shown to be helpful for management of pain, nerve damage from chemotherapy, and nausea

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Feasibility of Patient Enrollment and Intervention Adherence
Time Frame: Enrollment data over 3 months; Acupuncture attendance was recorded during Chemotherapy Cycles 2,3,4 ESAS were conducted at four time points for each cycle ESAS Assessments: Completion will were recorded up to 5 days post-infusion for Cycle 2-4

Feasibility was measured by:

Enrollment of at least 20 patients (80% of the target sample size) within 3 months.

Completion of at least 75% of scheduled auricular acupuncture sessions. Completion of at least 75% of ESAS assessments. Methods: Data were collected from patient enrollment logs, session attendance records, and ESAS assessment completion records.
Enrollment data over 3 months; Acupuncture attendance was recorded during Chemotherapy Cycles 2,3,4 ESAS were conducted at four time points for each cycle ESAS Assessments: Completion will were recorded up to 5 days post-infusion for Cycle 2-4

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Changes in Edmonton Symptom Assessment System Revised (ESAS-R) Score Relative to Baseline at Education Cycle (Cycle 2)
Time Frame: Assessed at pre-education on day 1 (T1), post-education on day 1 (T2), day 2 (T3), day 5 (T4) of cycle 2 (Education)
The Edmonton Symptom Assessment System-Revised Version (ESAS-R) is a 9-item scale that assesses the current severity of common symptoms. The ESAS-R has been validated in cancer populations. Each symptom is scored from 0 to 10 on an 11-point numerical rating scale, with total scores ranging from 0 to 90. Higher scores indicate a greater symptom burden.
Assessed at pre-education on day 1 (T1), post-education on day 1 (T2), day 2 (T3), day 5 (T4) of cycle 2 (Education)
Changes in Edmonton Symptom Assessment System Revised (ESAS-R) Score Relative to Baseline at Acupuncture Cycle (Cycle 3 and Cycle 4)
Time Frame: Assessed at pre-acupuncture on day 1 (T1), post-acupuncture on day 1 (T2), day 2 (T3), day 5 (T4) of cycle 3 and cycle 4 (Acupuncture Cycles). Participants were followed up to 12 weeks.
Scores of cycle 3 and cycle 4 are averaged. The Edmonton Symptom Assessment System-Revised Version (ESAS-R) is a 9-item scale that assesses the current severity of common symptoms. The ESAS-R has been validated in cancer populations. Each symptom is scored from 0 to 10 on an 11-point numerical rating scale, with total scores ranging from 0 to 90. Higher scores indicate a greater symptom burden.
Assessed at pre-acupuncture on day 1 (T1), post-acupuncture on day 1 (T2), day 2 (T3), day 5 (T4) of cycle 3 and cycle 4 (Acupuncture Cycles). Participants were followed up to 12 weeks.
Changes in State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) Score Relative to Baseline Between Education (Cycle 2) and Acupuncture (Cycle 3 and 4)
Time Frame: STAI were collected at four time points for each of the three cycles: 1) On the day of chemotherapy infusion or day 1, pre-education/acupuncture (T1); 2) Day 1, immediate post-education/acupuncture (T2); 3) Day 2 (T3); 4) Day 5 follow-up (T4)
State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-State (STAI-S) is a validated and commonly used measure for evaluating a patient's current state of anxiety. It has been widely used in cancer populations. It consists of 20 items, with each item scored from 1 to 4, and the total score ranges from 20 to 80. Higher scores indicate a greater level of anxiety.
STAI were collected at four time points for each of the three cycles: 1) On the day of chemotherapy infusion or day 1, pre-education/acupuncture (T1); 2) Day 1, immediate post-education/acupuncture (T2); 3) Day 2 (T3); 4) Day 5 follow-up (T4)
Number of Participants Experienced Acupuncture-related Adverse Effects
Time Frame: Participants were followed up to 12 weeks.
The National Cancer Institute-Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (NCI-CTCAE) v.4.0 were used to collect safety data related to adverse events, including skin bruising, hematoma, pre- syncope, syncope, and nausea.
Participants were followed up to 12 weeks.

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Weidong Lu, MB, MPH, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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)

June 19, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 31, 2022

Study Completion (Actual)

December 31, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 23, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 26, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

May 31, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 30, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 14, 2025

Last Verified

April 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 17-065

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

Yes

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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