Knowing that acupuncture provides effective relief from hot flashes and other symptoms associated with menopause, Jill Hervik, a physiotherapist and acupuncturist, conducted a trial to see if the same relief could be achieved in breast cancer patients taking tamoxifen after surgery for estrogen-sensitive breast cancers.  Tamoxifen causes some of the same symptoms that are associated with menopause.

On April 18, she reported her findings to the 6th European Breast Cancer Conference in Berlin.  Hervik, affiliated with the Vestfold Central Hospital in Norway, announced a 50% reduction in the number of hot flashes during acupuncture treatment and for several months afterward.  The acupuncture was effective for both day and night hot flashes.

She further weighed the effect of acupuncture using the Kupperman Index to assess quality of life in relation to other symptoms such as depression, dizziness, heart palpitations, headache, joint pain, sweating, sleeping problems, and vaginal dryness, all symptoms associated with both tamoxifen and menopause.  Again, scores on the Kupperman Index indicated an improvement of about 50% in these symptoms, too.

To conduct the study, Hervik and her supervisor, Dr. Odd Mjåland, worked with 59 breast cancer patients between March 2003 and December 2006.  One group of study subjects received a ten-week course of traditional Chinese acupuncture while a control group received sham acupuncture treatment.  The sham treatment involved shallower punctures that were done at parts of the body well away from known acupuncture points.  For both groups, the setting was kept neutral, with no music or conversation, so as to reduce any response those elements might produce.

For four weeks before treatment, each study participant recorded the incidence of hot flashes.  The record was continued during the treatment period and for 12 weeks afterward.

The group receiving true acupuncture enjoyed a reduction of hot flashes by about half for both day and night during the study, with further reduction in the numbers three months after treatment was ended.  The group receiving sham acupuncture experienced a small reduction in the number of nighttime hot flashes only, while the daytime hot flashes remained as before.  The nighttime hot flashes returned once the bogus acupuncture treatment ended.

The other symptoms recorded in the Kupperman Index remained low for the treated group after treatment but the control group experienced a return of symptoms when the acupuncture treatments ended.

Hervik would like to see more breast cancer patients getting acupuncture therapy along with tamoxifen because it is inexpensive and doesn’t come with the risk of adverse side effects.

Source: European CanCer Organisation