ArticleEvidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM2011
Acupuncture May Stimulate Anticancer Immunity via Activation of Natural Killer Cells.
Article in Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy of the complementary therapies in the management of cancer pain in palliative care: A systematic review.Revista latino-americana de enfermagem · 2020Pooled it
- Effects of acupuncture for the treatment of endometriosis-related pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2017Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture versus Sham Acupuncture: a Systematic Review.Revista latino-americana de enfermagem · 2016Pooled it
- The role of acupoint stimulation as an adjunct therapy for lung cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC complementary and alternative medicine · 2013Pooled it
- Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation Improves Immunological Function During the Perioperative Period in Patients With Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Undergoing Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgical Lobectomy.Technology in cancer research & treatment · 2018Trial
- Antitumor effects of acupuncture and moxibustion: from immune modulation to tumor microenvironment remodeling.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Acupuncture in remodeling the tumor microenvironment: current status and challenges.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- The immunomodulatory mechanism of acupuncture treatment for ischemic stroke: research progress, prospects, and future direction.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- Research progress on the immunomodulatory mechanism of acupuncture in tumor immune microenvironment.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- The immunomodulatory mechanisms for acupuncture practice.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- Overview of the Effect of Complementary Medicine on Treating or Mitigating the Risk of Endometriosis.Revista brasileira de ginecologia e obstetricia : revista da Federacao Brasileira das Sociedades de Ginecologia e Obstetricia · 2021Review
- Review
- Research Progress on the Mechanism of the Acupuncture Regulating Neuro-Endocrine-Immune Network System.Veterinary sciences · 2021Review
- Roles of β-Endorphin in Stress, Behavior, Neuroinflammation, and Brain Energy Metabolism.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
- Stress reduction strategies in breast cancer: review of pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic based strategies.Seminars in immunopathology · 2020Review
- BETA ENDORPHINS - HOLISTIC THERAPEUTIC APPROACH TO CANCER.Annals of Ibadan postgraduate medicine · 2019Article
- Electro-Acupuncture Therapy Increases Serum Interferon-γ Levels in Rats with 7, 12 Dimethylbenz(α)anthracene (DMBA)-Induced Breast TumorsAsian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP · 2017Article
- Acupuncture as anticancer treatment?Contemporary oncology (Poznan, Poland) · 2016Review
- Clinical Experiences of Korean Medicine Treatment against Urinary Bladder Cancer in General Practice.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2016Article
- Electroacupuncture improves trinitrobenzene sulfonic Acid-induced colitis, evaluated by transcriptomic study.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This article presents the hypothesis that acupuncture enhances anticancer immune functions by stimulating natural killer (NK) cells. It provides background information on acupuncture, summarizes the current scientific understanding of the mechanisms through which NK cells act to eliminate cancer cells, and reviews evidence that acupuncture is associated with increases in NK cell quantity and function in both animals and humans. The key contribution of this article involves the use of cellular immunology and molecular biological theory to interpret and synthesize evidence from disparate animal and human studies in formulating the 'acupuncture immuno-enhancement hypothesis': clinicians may use acupuncture to promote the induction and secretion of NK-cell activating cytokines that engage specific NK cell receptors that endogenously enhance anticancer immune function.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.