Transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) relieved cancer-related fatigue in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients after chemotherapy

Background: To explore the effectiveness of transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) approach on cancer-related fatigue (CRF) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) chemotherapy patients. Methods: A total of 162 participants who treated with gemcitabine combined with platinum-based drugs (GP chemotherapy) were randomly assigned to three groups: Control (Group A, n=56), Sham TEAS (Group B, n=49), and TEAS (Group C, n=57). The following acupoints were used in this study: Qihai (CV6), Keshu (UB17), and Zusanli (ST36). The Revised Piper Fatigue Scale (RPFS) were used to measure CRF on the day before chemotherapy (P1), days 8 (P2) and 28 (P3) separately. The Differences among three groups were analyzed. Results: At the 28th day, the outcomes of the fatigue scores for Group C, Group B and Group A were 2.06±0.90, 2.80±1.34, 3.00±1.29 respectively. There were significantly different among three groups (F=9.784, P < 0.01). At the 28th day, the outcomes of the affective fatigue (F=8.161, P < 0.01), sensory fatigue (F=3.06, P=0.05) and cognitive fatigue (F=8.06, P < 0.01) for Group C, Group B and Group A were significantly different among three groups. Conclusions: Chemotherapy may increase the fatigue from P1 to P2 and P3 in NSCLC patients. And TEAS could help to relived CRF, especially at P3.