Patients' Perspectives on Integrating Acupuncture into the Radiation Oncology Setting

Acupuncture has potential as a supportive care service for cancer symptom management. However, little is known about patients' willingness to use acupuncture in the context of conventional cancer care.

We conducted a cross-sectional survey study among patients with cancer during their last week of fractionated/external beam radiotherapy (RT). The main outcome variable was self-reported likelihood of using acupuncture during RT. Knowledge about acupuncture and pain severity was measured along with socio-demographic and clinical variables. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with willingness to use acupuncture.

Among the 305 participants, 79 (26.4%) were likely to use acupuncture during RT if such services were offered at a reasonable price, 143 (46.9%) had no knowledge of acupuncture, and 206 (67.6%) reported having pain. In multivariate analyses, non-Whites (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 1.94, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.06-3.56), and those with pain (AOR 2.52, CI 1.25-5.10) were more interested in using acupuncture. In addition, patients with preexisting knowledge about acupuncture were also more likely to use acupuncture than those without this knowledge (AOR 2.23, CI 1.28-3.88).

Patients of non-White race, those with pain or those with prior knowledge about acupuncture were more willing to utilize acupuncture during RT. Since half of the patients had no knowledge about acupuncture, interventions to improve patients' knowledge are needed to facilitate the successful integration of acupuncture into cancer care.