Lymphoedema

Presentation Slides

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

Acupuncture shows positive effects on cancer-related issues; research calls for further exploration of acupuncture's efficacy and safety, especially for conditions like depression, offering further potential support for cancer survivors

2022 Phytomedicine Acupuncture for cancer-related conditions: An overview of systematic reviews
Zhang X, Hou W, Pu F, Wang X, Wang Y, Yang M, Cheng K, Wang Y, Robinson N, Liu J

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

Acupuncture intervention could significantly improve the treatment outcomes for breast cancer-related lymphedema, regardless of the control treatments used.

2019 Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research Acupuncture therapy for breast cancer‐related lymphedema: A systematic review and meta‐analysis
Hou W, Pei L, Song Y, Wu J, Geng H, Chen L, Wang Y, Hu Y, Zhou J, Sun J

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

Acupuncture has been presented as an effective intervention for reducing limb oedema in women post breast cancer surgery.

2019 Acupuncture in Medicine Effects of acupuncture on breast cancer-related lymphoedema: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials
Zhang X, Wang X, Zhang B, Yang S, Liu D.

Executive Summary

Write an executive summary in the form of a blog article on the topic of "Research into Chinese medicine treatment for Lymphoedema" summarising the research below and using language that can be easily understood by patients and avoiding medical jargon using a professional and caring tone of voice.

Write an executive summary in the form of a blog article on the topic of "Researched Chinese medicine treatments for Lymphoedema" summarising the research below in an objective and easy to understand way, and using language that can be easily understood by patients. Group the article into Chinese medicine treatments first, followed by nutrition and other treatments. Avoid using medical jargon and use a professional and caring tone of voice.

Write me a concise but easy to understand executive summary on the topic of "Chinese medicine treatments for Lymphoedema" based on the following research that I will give you. Your summary should be 2 paragraphs long in Australian English spelling and include references to the studies.

A Systematic Review published in 2022 in the journal Phytomedicine found that Acupuncture shows positive effects on cancer-related issues; research calls for further exploration of acupuncture's efficacy and safety, especially for conditions like depression, offering further potential support for cancer survivors This review summarizes evidence from 51 systematic reviews on acupuncture for cancer-related conditions. Acupuncture was found to have positive effects on various conditions such as cancer-related pain, fatigue, insomnia, nausea, and more. The methodological quality of the reviews was generally low, and some biases were identified. Acupuncture was considered safe, with only mild adverse events reported. In clinical practice, acupuncture can be a beneficial option for cancer survivors for certain conditions.

A Systematic Review published in 2019 in the journal Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research found that Acupuncture intervention could significantly improve the treatment outcomes for breast cancer-related lymphedema, regardless of the control treatments used. The methodology of this study began with a detailed survey of public databases, including China Academic Journals Full-text Database, Database of Chinese Sci-Tech Journal, Wanfang, PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Library, and focused on looking for randomized controlled trials related to the use of acupuncture for the treatment of breast cancer-related lymphedema. Clinical trials on the treatment of this condition, where acupuncture was used in conjunction with drugs or functional exercise, were singled out for inclusion in the study. The assessment of any potential risk of bias and quality was performed by two investigators using Cochrane Handbook standard, accompanied by meta-analysis with the help of Revman software. As for the discussion of the results, the study comprised 13 different studies, enrolling a total of 747 patients. Analysis of these enrolled studies revealed that the use of acupuncture intervention showed an increase in success rate in treating breast cancer-related lymphedema. This was evidenced by an observed improvement in the subjective pain, discomfort, and upper limb swelling in patients who received acupuncture therapy, irrespective of the control intervention used. However, it was mentioned that the majority of the studies used in the assessment contained inconsistent efficacy indicators.

A Systematic Review published in 2019 in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine found that Acupuncture has been presented as an effective intervention for reducing limb oedema in women post breast cancer surgery. The methodology involved a broad electronic search through six databases for research papers published till November 2017. Only randomized controlled trials focused on the use of acupuncture for breast cancer-related lymphedema were included in the process. Ultimately, six trials, involving a cumulative total of 318 patients, were identified for evaluation. The main outcomes looked at were the pre/post-treatment differences in the diameter of the elbow joint, reductions in upper limb lymphedema and effectiveness index based on arm measurement data in patients with breast cancer. The analysis of results revealed an overall positive effect of acupuncture intervention on the parameters examined. Two of the studies observed a significant reduction in elbow joint diameter and upper limb lymphedema in the acupuncture groups. Another two studies noted a marked difference in the effectiveness index based on arm measurements between the acupuncture and control groups, favoring the former. The fifth study used bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy and reported a significant reduction in lymphedema. The sixth study, however, did not report any significant difference in bioimpedance between the groups. Overall the results suggest that acupuncture could be an effective method for managing limb oedema in patients post breast cancer treatment.

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