Prospective study on the use of acupuncture for nausea and vomiting control in patients with breast cancer submitted to adjuvant chemotherapy

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of two acupuncture techniques in the control of the nausea and vomiting in patients diagnosed of Invasive Breast Carcinoma submitted to chemotherapy. Sixty four patients with pathological diagnosis of Invasive Breast Carcinoma were included in the study during the period of March 2003 to February 2007 at Hospital A.C. Camargo. The patients received adjuvant chemotherapy including doxorubicin and ciclophosphamide. The study was developed during the first chemotherapy cycle. The patients were randomized in 3 groups: Patients of the group A received conventional antiemetic treatment with drug administration. Patients of the group B received conventional antiemetic treatment with drug administration and application of classic acupuncture. Patients of the group C received conventional antiemetic treatment with drug administration and application of auricular acupuncture. During the first 21 days, the patients performed self-reports after receiving the chemotherapy shot, according to the Common toxicity criteria of the National Cancer Institute (NCI CTC). They filled out the data collection instrument related to the nausea and vomiting in this period. As for the nausea from the first to the seventh day, we found statistical significancy (p=0.040) using the Kruskal - Wallis test, suggesting that acupuncture reduces the intensity of nausea in this period. Regarding length of days having worse intensity of nausea in this period, results were statistically significant by ANOVA test (p=0.037) with acupuncture decreasing the number of days of worse intensity. Through the Mann Whitney test, we also found significant difference regarding the intensity of nausea among the groups A and B (p=0.013), showing that classic acupuncture reduces the intensity of nausea when compared to the control group. In relation to the days...