Acupuncture to Improve Quality of Life in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer: A Randomized Clinical Trial
In brief
Acupuncture improves quality-of-life scores for head-neck cancer patients during radiotherapy
In a randomized trial of 107 patients receiving radiotherapy for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, those who received weekly traditional acupuncture plus ear acupressure reported higher physical, psychological, social, environmental and overall WHOQOL-BREF scores than controls. The findings suggest acupuncture can boost quality of life, but larger studies are needed to confirm its effectiveness.
- Journal
- Cancers (Q1)
- Published
- 1 July 2026
- Study design
- Randomized controlled trial
- Evidence level
- Level 1, High (CEBM 1b)
- Authors
- Agna Soares da Silva Menezes, Gabriela Luize Guimarães Sanches, Cristina Paixão Durães, Larissa Lopes Fonseca, Stephany Gabrielle Chaves Santos, Arlen de Paulo Santiago Filho, et al.
- PMID
- 42449674
- DOI
- 10.3390/cancers18132132
Why clinicians should know about it
- Picked for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (paper of the day, 16 July 2026): RCT of acupuncture for head/neck cancer QoL
Abstract
Objective: We aimed to investigate the effects of traditional acupuncture combined with auricular acupressure on quality of life in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma undergoing radiotherapy. Study Design: This is a two-arm, parallel, randomized clinical trial with blinded outcome assessment. The study population comprised 107 patients (55 without intervention and 52 with intervention). Data were collected at Dilson Godinho Hospital in Brazil from March 2017 to June 2018, and all patients provided informed consent and were registered under the UTN U1111-1204-8410/RBR-10v5gcdk. Patients in the intervention group received traditional and auricular acupressure in weekly sessions during their radiotherapy treatment, and patients in the control group received no acupuncture. In addition, quality-of-life assessment data were collected using the WHOQOL-BREF instrument. Results: Analysis of the scores obtained in the WHOQOL-BREF before and after radiotherapy demonstrated that the use of traditional and auricular acupressure had a positive impact on physical, psychological, social, environmental, and overall quality of life. Conclusions: Our findings suggest benefits and provide a context for patients and physicians to decide if acupuncture is a desirable treatment option. However, further studies are required to understand the therapy's effectiveness better.
Abstract as published, via PubMed.
For healthcare professionals. The summary is generated by AI from the published abstract, and the evidence level is assigned automatically from the study design on the Oxford CEBM hierarchy. Neither is medical advice. Read the full paper before changing practice.