Effectiveness and Safety of Acupuncture Moxibustion Therapy Used in Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Huimin Jin, Yuying Xiang, Yuqian Feng, Yiting Zhang, Shan Liu, Shanming Ruan, Huamiao Zhou · Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine · 2020 May 12

DOI 10.1155/2020/3237451

Objective

To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture moxibustion therapy (AMT) for the breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL).

Conclusions

This systematic review and meta-analysis provides evidence that AMT is serviceable and safe in treating BCRL. With the limited number of available studies and methodology drawbacks, further high-quality RCTs with reasonable designs are still warranted.

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Insights

This systematic review and meta-analysis provides evidence that acupuncture moxibustion therapy is serviceable and safe in treating breast cancer-related lymphedema.

Twelve RCTs with 778 participants were identified for further analysis. On account of the evidence we assessed, the conclusion that can be reached is that acupuncture moxibustion therapy (AMT) could be considered as an alternative option to enhance the efficacy of breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL) treatment. Eight trials showed that AMT combined with physiotherapy or functional exercise for the treatment of BCRL significantly improved the total effective rate, in comparison with using conservative treatment alone. Based on changes in the difference of upper limbs before and after treatment, five trials suggested that AMT or AMT plus physical therapy was more effective than physical therapy alone. The differences in arm dimension changes were smaller in patients treated with AMT than those in untreated patients. These results showed that acupuncture and moxibustion enhance the beneficial effects of physical therapy. Moreover, pooled data from five studies showed that AMT (including cupping) had advantage over Western medicine and physiotherapy at improving the quality of life among BCRL patients. Among the included studies, only one trial clearly recorded the adverse events that occurred during the treatment period. It can be said that AMT is basically safe and hardly bring about harm to the human body. Several studies have taken moxibustion as an intervention measure. The results indicated that moxibustion efficiently alleviated the symptoms of edema in BCRL patients, without any obvious adverse events. Hence, after several times of professional guidance, patients could carry out moxibustion by themselves, which is free of time and place restrictions. These findings indicated that the efficacy of AMT was higher compared to other conservative treatments. Apart from this, since the adverse events of AMT were negligible, it was extraordinary attractive to women with BCRL.