ReviewEvidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM2021
Acupuncture Combined with Three-Step Analgesic Drug Therapy for Treatment of Cancer Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomised Clinical Trials.
Review in Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 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
18 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Warming-dredging acupuncture for cancer-related pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Pooled it
- Acupuncture therapy on myofascial pain syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Pooled it
- Therapeutic efficacy of acupuncture point stimulation for stomach cancer pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Pooled it
- Effects of Acupuncture on Cancer Pain in Animal Intervention Studies: A Systematic Review and Quality Assessment.Integrative cancer therapiesPooled it
- Acupuncture and Acupressure for Cancer Symptom Management: an Opinion Statement Based on Preliminary Evidence Mapping.Current treatment options in oncology · 2026Review
- Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture Combined with Conventional Drug Therapy for the Treatment of Cancer-Induced Bone Pain: A Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Journal of pain research · 2025Review
- Mechanisms of Cancer-Induced Bone Pain.Journal of pain research · 2025Review
- Recent advances in acupuncture for pain relief.Pain reports · 2024Article
- Combinational Antitumor Strategies Based on the Active Ingredients of Toad Skin and Toad Venom.Drug design, development and therapy · 2024Review
- The Effects of Complementary Therapies on Patient-Reported Outcomes: An Overview of Recent Systematic Reviews in Oncology.Cancers · 2023Review
- Traditional Chinese Medicine for Breast Cancer: A Review.Breast cancer (Dove Medical Press) · 2023Review
- Moxibustion as an Adjuvant Therapy for Cancer Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of pain research · 2023Review
- Acupuncture for cancer pain: a scoping review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.Frontiers in oncology · 2023Article
- Acupuncture in hematologic malignancies and hematopoietic cell transplantation.Blood reviews · 2022Review
- Effect of Transdermal Fentanyl Patch Combined with Enhanced Recovery after Surgery on the Curative Effect and Analgesic Effect of Liver Cancer.BioMed research international · 2022Article
- Increasing Trends of Polypharmacy and Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Lung Cancer Patients in China: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Article
- An Overview of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of Clinical Studies of Acupuncture for Cancer Pain.Integrative cancer therapiesReview
- Research on Electroacupuncture Parameters for Cancer Pain Based on Data Mining.Integrative cancer therapiesReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThe purpose of this study was to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture combined with the WHO three-step analgesic drug ladder for cancer pain.
methodsThe Cochrane Library, PubMed, and CNKI Database of Systematic Reviews were searched. Using the Cochrane Register for Randomized Controlled Trials, the quality of the included literature was evaluated, and the meta-analysis was carried out with RevMan 5.3 software.
resultsCompared with three-step analgesia alone, acupuncture combined with three-step analgesia for cancer pain increased pain relief response rates (RR = 1.12, 95% CI: 1.08∼1.17,
conclusionFor the treatment of cancer pain, acupuncture combined with three-step analgesic drugs is better than using only three-step analgesic drugs.
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.