German researchers say that acupuncture may help relieve pain in patients undergoing cancer treatment – and that they have found a scientific way of showing this.
The findings, involving a small number of patients are reported today in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine.
Researcher Dr Sven Schroeder studied the benefits of acupuncture for the treatment of limb pain caused by chemotherapy. The pain can affect the calves and feet and cause problems walking.
Some six patients received acupuncture in the research and their progress was compared with another six volunteers.
The researchers used nerve conduction studies, to measure the speed and intensity of signals of two nerves in the calf.
These showed improvements in five of the six patients who underwent acupuncture – compared with just one of those who did not receive the treatment.
Dr Shroeder, of the HanseMerkur Centre for Traditional Chinese Medicine, of the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, says the findings are "encouraging".
Acupuncture in Medicine December 6 2011: doi 10.1136/acupmed-2011-010034
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