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Acupuncture for Chronic Lymphedema

NCT01706081 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: PHASE2 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 82

Last updated 2019-08-29

Study results available
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Summary

This study is being done because women have arm swelling for more than 6 months despite wrapping and other treatments. This swelling is called lymphedema. It is the back up of lymph system fluid that causes swelling in the arm. The swelling can just happen, but more commonly it is caused when lymph nodes are removed during cancer surgery. It can develop right after breast cancer treatment or weeks, months or even years later. In our preliminary research, the investigators found that more than 1/3 of the 33 patients showed at least a 30% reduction in lymphedema following acupuncture treatment and there were no serious adverse events during the treatment or 6 month followup.

This study will include a larger group of patients. Patients will be assigned to one of two groups, and results of the groups will be compared to see if acupuncture can reduce lymphedema and whether the effect lasts after acupuncture treatment is completed.

Conditions

  • Breast Cancer With Chronic Lymphedema

Interventions

PROCEDURE

Acupuncture

Each treatment will be 30 minutes in duration. Patients will receive two acupuncture treatments each week for six consecutive weeks. Patients will be advised to continue their standard lymphedema treatments such as exercise or use of compression garments if these were in use prior to clinical trial participation.

PROCEDURE

Wait-list

For participants in the wait-list control group, follow-up objective and subjective assessments of lymphedema will be performed after approximately 6 weeks on the wait-list, before onset of acupuncture treatment, following 6 weeks of acupuncture treatment and about 3 months after completion of treatment. BMI will be measured at the same timepoints.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Principal Investigators

  • Ting Bao, MD · Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
FEMALE
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2012-10-31
Primary Completion
2018-04-11
Completion
2018-04-11

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Companies

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01706081 on ClinicalTrials.gov