[Research progress on analgesic mechanism of acupuncture for cancer pain]

Cancer pain is one of the common complications in patients with intermediate or advanced cancer, which brings severe sufferings to patients and their families, and also seriously interferes with the anti-tumor process. Acupuncture is an effective method for the treatment of cancer pain, which has the advantages of simple operation, quick effect and fewer side effects, and is widely used in clinic. In this paper, we reviewed the relevant literature on the mechanisms of acupuncture in the treatment of cancer pain both at home and abroad in recent years, and summarized the analgesic mechanisms of acupuncture for cancer pain from the peripheral level and the central level. It is found that acupuncture can relieve cancer pain by regulating immune inflammatory response, expression of ion channels and pain-related receptors, remising central sensitization, activating endogenous pain modulating system and suppressing pain transmission pathways. In addition, we also think that the use of high-throughput multi-omics techniques and neuroimaging methods to detect and analyze the brain areas or body fluids before and after acupuncture should be the focus of acupuncture analgesia research in the future.