ReviewJournal of pain research2025
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.
Review in Journal of pain research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Cancer-induced bone pain (CIBP) involves both nociceptive and neuropathic components, causing significant suffering in cancer patients. Acupuncture has shown beneficial effects on CIBP. However, given the diverse acupuncture techniques, their therapeutic efficacy may vary. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of various acupuncture modalities integrated with conventional drug therapy for CIBP. Methods: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture combined with conventional analgesics for CIBP were searched across eight Chinese and English databases and clinical trial registries up to September 2024. Two researchers independently performed literature screening, data extraction, and bias assessment. Data were analyzed using Stata 14.0 and R 4.2.3. Results: Twenty-two RCTs involving 1,738 patients were included, assessing techniques including manual acupuncture (MA), electroacupuncture (EA), moxibustion (MOX), acupoint injection (AI), acupoint catgut embedding (ACE), auricular-plaster therapy (AP), thumbtack needle (TN) and transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS). The outcomes were assessed across 20 studies for the clinical effective rate, 13 for nausea and vomiting, and 11 for constipation.The results indicated that for the primary outcome of pain relief (as measured by clinical effective rate), TN demonstrated the highest probability of being the most effective acupuncture technique (SUCRA = 75.2%). In terms of mitigating opioid-induced adverse reactions, ACE was most effective for reducing nausea and vomiting (SUCRA = 87.7%), while EA+AP was optimal for alleviating constipation (SUCRA = 93.5%). MA+MOX achieved the best overall balance between efficacy and the incidence of adverse reactions. Conclusion: Acupuncture combined with conventional drug therapy significantly improves pain relief in CIBP and reduces opioid-related side effects. However, due to methodological limitations and the modest sample sizes of available studies, further high-quality, multicenter trials with larger samples are needed to confirm these findings and inform clinical practice.
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Registered trials
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