Comparison of effectiveness between warm acupuncture with local-distal points combination and local distribution points combination in breast cancer-related lymphedema patients: a study protocol for a multicenter, randomized, controlled clinical trial.

Background: Lymphedema is the most common complication after breast cancer treatment, but management of lymphedema remains a clinical challenge. Several studies have reported the beneficial effect of acupuncture for treating breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL). Our objective is to verify the effectiveness of warm acupuncture on BCRL and compare the effectiveness of a local distribution acupoint combination with a local-distal acupoint combination for BCRL.