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Updated: Jul 16, 2026

Acupoint Application Combined with Acupressure as an Adjunctive Therapy for Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting
Published on: June 21, 2024
Massage relieves nausea in women with breast cancer who are undergoing chemotherapy
Annika Billhult1, Ingegerd Bergbom, Elisabet Stener-Victorin
1Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology/Physiotherapy, The Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden. annika.billhult@vgregion.se
Objectives:
The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of massage on nausea, anxiety, and depression in patients with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy.
Design:
This work was a single-center, prospective, randomized, controlled trial.
Settings/Location:
This study was conducted in an oncology clinic, in a hospital in southwestern Sweden.
Subjects:
Thirty-nine (39) women (mean age = 51.8) with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy were enrolled.
Interventions:
The patients were randomly assigned to a massage therapy group (20 minutes of massage on five occasions) or a control group (five 20-minute visits).
Outcome Measures:
All patients recorded nausea and anxiety on the Visual Analogue Scale before and after each intervention. They also completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.
Results:
Massage treatment significantly reduced nausea compared with control treatment (p = 0.025) when improvement was measured as a percentage of the five treatment periods. Differences in anxiety and depression between the two treatment regimes could not be statistically demonstrated.
Conclusions:
This study complements previous studies on the effect of massage and supports the conclusion that massage reduces nausea in these patients.
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