Clinical trial · Interventional
Acupuncture or Standard Therapy in Treating Pain and Dysfunction in Patients Who Have Undergone Neck Surgery for Head and Neck Cancer
Acupuncture for Pain and Dysfunction Following Neck Dissection: A Randomized, Controlled, Phase III Trial
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
RATIONALE: Acupuncture may help relieve pain and dysfunction caused by cancer surgery. It is not yet known whether acupuncture is more effective than standard therapy in treating pain and dysfunction in patients who have undergone neck surgery for head and neck cancer. PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying acupuncture to see how well it works compared to standard therapy in treating pain and dysfunction in patients who have undergone neck surgery for head and neck cancer.
Conditions
Conditions (2)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Head and Neck Cancer | Malignant Head and Neck Neoplasm | ALIAS | 0.90 |
| Pain | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
Interventions
Interventions (2)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| acupuncture therapy | Procedure | — | UNRESOLVED |
| standard follow-up care | Procedure | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (2)
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- Arm I
- description
- Patients undergo acupuncture for 20-30 minutes once weekly for 4 weeks.
- interventionNames
- Procedure: acupuncture therapy
- type
- ACTIVE_COMPARATOR
- label
- Arm II
- description
- Patients undergo standard of care for 4 weeks.
- interventionNames
- Procedure: standard follow-up care
Primary outcomes (1)
- measure
- Pain, function and activities of daily living as measured by the Constant-Murley instrument
Secondary outcomes (1)
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
Show eligibility criteria text
DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: * Must have undergone neck dissection for cancer ≥ 3 months ago (in order to qualify pain as chronic sequella) * Subjective complaint of pain and/or dysfunction in the neck and/or shoulders that, in the opinion of the investigator, is due to neck dissection * Constant-Murley score ≤ 70 (i.e., moderate or severe pain and dysfunction) * No moderate or severe neck or shoulder pain that, in the opinion of the investigator, is not due to cancer surgery PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: * Not specified PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: * See Disease Characteristics * At least 3 months since prior radiotherapy * More than 6 weeks since prior acupuncture * Concurrent analgesics allowed
References
Publications (1)
- RESULTPfister DG, Cassileth BR, Deng GE, Yeung KS, Lee JS, Garrity D, Cronin A, Lee N, Kraus D, Shaha AR, Shah J, Vickers AJ. Acupuncture for pain and dysfunction after neck dissection: results of a randomized controlled trial. J Clin Oncol. 2010 May 20;28(15):2565-70. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2009.26.9860. Epub 2010 Apr 20. PMID 20406930