Characteristics and Challenges of Providing Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine in Oncology Treatment: Report of Survey Data and Experience of Five Unique Clinical Settings.

Acupuncture is an integrative therapy with strong evidence to support its use in the oncology setting, yet barriers exist for implementation into conventional medical clinics. Though acupuncture is recommended in clinical practice guidelines for oncology, there is little data in the literature showing how acupuncture and other related therapies, including herbal medicine are successfully implemented in some oncology clinics, while others experience barriers to care. To characterize the current use of acupuncture (ACU) and herbal medicine (HM) in oncology clinics, we collected general demographic and usage data from 5 example clinics.

Clinical practice guidelines on the evidence-based use of integrative therapies during and after breast cancer treatment.

Answer questions and earn CME/CNE Patients with breast cancer commonly use complementary and integrative therapies as supportive care during cancer treatment and to manage treatment-related side effects. However, evidence supporting the use of such therapies in the oncology setting is limited. This report provides updated clinical practice guidelines from the Society for Integrative Oncology on the use of integrative therapies for specific clinical indications during and after breast cancer treatment, including anxiety/stress, depression/mood disorders, fatigue, quality of life/physical functioning, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, lymphedema, chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, pain, and sleep disturbance.