Clinical trial · Interventional
Acupuncture or Self-Acupuncture in Managing Cancer-Related Fatigue in Women Who Have Received Chemotherapy for Stage I, Stage II, or Stage IIIA Breast Cancer
The Efficacy of Acupuncture and Self-acupuncture in Managing Cancer-related Fatigue in Breast Cancer Patients: a Pragmatic Randomised 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 fatigue caused by breast cancer. It is not yet known whether acupuncture is more effective than self-acupuncture in managing fatigue in women with breast cancer. PURPOSE: This randomized phase III trial is studying acupuncture to see how well it works compared with self-acupuncture in managing cancer-related fatigue in women who have received chemotherapy for stage I, stage II, or stage IIIA breast cancer.
Conditions
Conditions (4)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anxiety Disorder | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Breast Cancer | Malignant Breast Neoplasm | CURATED_EXACT | 0.92 |
| Depression | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Fatigue | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
Interventions
Interventions (2)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| acupuncture therapy | Procedure | — | UNRESOLVED |
| standard follow-up care | Procedure | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (5)
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- Arm I
- description
- Patients undergo a 20-minute acupuncture session once a week for 6 weeks. Patients also receive written information about fatigue and its possible management.
- interventionNames
- Procedure: acupuncture therapy
- type
- NO_INTERVENTION
- label
- Arm II
- description
- Patients receive standard care. They also receive written information about fatigue as in arm I.
- interventionNames
- Procedure: standard follow-up care
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- Arm A
- description
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- Female
Show eligibility criteria text
DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS: * Diagnosis of breast cancer * Stage I, II, or IIIA disease * Completed prior chemotherapy for ≥ 1 month and up to 5 years * No needling on the ipsilateral arm of patients who have undergone axillary dissection * No needling on the lymphedematous limbs * Score of ≥ 5 on a 0-10 single-item screening fatigue scale, where 0 is no fatigue at all and 10 is extremely fatigued * Hormone receptor status not specified PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS: * Life expectancy ≥ 6 months * Menopausal status not specified * Platelet count ≥ 50,000/mm\^3 * Hemoglobin ≥ 10 g/dL * Hematocrit ≥ 30% * Not pregnant * No needle phobia * No co-morbidity with any of the following: * Bleeding disorder * Thyroid dysfunction PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY: * See Disease Characteristics * No planned concurrent chemoradiotherapy * No concurrent steroids * No concurrent epoetin alfa or transfusion for anemia * No other concurrent complementary therapies
References
Publications (2)
- DERIVEDMolassiotis A, Bardy J, Finnegan-John J, Mackereth P, Ryder WD, Filshie J, Ream E, Eaton D, Richardson A. A randomized, controlled trial of acupuncture self-needling as maintenance therapy for cancer-related fatigue after therapist-delivered acupuncture. Ann Oncol. 2013 Jun;24(6):1645-52. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdt034. Epub 2013 Feb 21. PMID 23436910
- DERIVEDMolassiotis A, Bardy J, Finnegan-John J, Mackereth P, Ryder DW, Filshie J, Ream E, Richardson A. Acupuncture for cancer-related fatigue in patients with breast cancer: a pragmatic randomized controlled trial. J Clin Oncol. 2012 Dec 20;30(36):4470-6. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2012.41.6222. Epub 2012 Oct 29. PMID 23109700