Acupuncture for hot flashes in women with breast cancer: A systematic review

Acupuncture is applied worldwide in treating hot flashes (HFs), which may be a common complication experienced by women with breast cancer (BC). Although researches associated with the effect of acupuncture for HFs have been done by many people, there is a lack of comprehensive evaluation of the effect of this therapy.

The aim of this systematic review is to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture for HFs in women with BC.

Seven databases (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, and Wan Fang Database) were searched from their inceptions to June 2015 without language restrictions. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were aggregated to evaluate the therapeutic effect of acupuncture for HFs in women with BC.

Twelve RCTs were identified at last, and all of the studies agreed on the potential therapeutic effect of acupuncture for HFs in women with BC. However, three trials showed significant difference compared with the controls. One research demonstrated an encouraging trend, and six did not find any difference between acupuncture and controls. Another two trials got a negative result compared with hormone therapy. The meta-analysis indicated a difference in the number of HFs after treatment and during follow-up compared with the controls. Three trials reported Kupperman index scores, and meta-analysis showed significant difference between acupuncture and controls after treatment and during follow-up.

Acupuncture seems to be an effective therapy for HFs in women with BC; however, there was insufficient evidence to support the efficacy of acupuncture. However, the results should be interpreted cautiously, because of the poor quality and small number of included studies.