Pain associated with cancer is one of the greatest causes of reduced quality of life in patients. Acupuncture is one of the treatments used to address this issue, with the great advantage of having little or no side effects, especially when compared with pharmacological pain-killers. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the current evidence regarding the efficacy of acupuncture for cancer pain. Six electronic databases (PubMed, EBSCO, Cochrane Library, Scielo, b-On and Scopus) were searched for relevant articles about pain relief in cancer patients from their beginning until 2022 using MeSH terms such as “acupuncture,” “electroacupuncture,” “ear acupuncture,” “acupuncture analgesia,” ‘‘oncological pain,” and “cancer pain.” Studies included were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) where acupuncture was compared with no treatment, placebo acupuncture or usual care. Three independent reviewers participated in data extraction and evaluation of risk of bias, and a meta-analysis was conducted. The primary outcome was pain intensity, measured with the visual analog scale, numeric rating scale, or brief pain inventory. Secondary outcomes also assessed were quality of life, functionality, xerostomia, pain interference, and analgesic consumption. Results were expressed as standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95% confidence interval (CI). Sixteen RCTs with a total of 1124 participants were included in the meta-analysis, with the majority of the studies presenting a low or unclear risk of bias. Acupuncture was more effective in reducing pain than no treatment (SMD = –0.90, 95 % CI [–1.68, –0.12]), sham acupuncture (SMD = –1.10, 95 % CI [–1.59, –0.61]) or usual care (SMD = –1.16, 95 % CI [–1.38, –0.93]). The results of this study suggest that acupuncture may be an effective intervention to reduce pain associated with cancer. Despite some limitations due to the low quality and small sample size of some included studies, as well as the different types and stages of cancer, acupuncture might provide an effective and safe treatment to reduce cancer pain.

中文翻译：

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针灸治疗癌痛的疗效：系统评价和荟萃分析

与癌症相关的疼痛是患者生活质量下降的最大原因之一。针灸是解决这个问题的治疗方法之一，其最大优点是副作用很小或没有副作用，特别是与药物止痛药相比。本系统评价和荟萃分析的目的是评估有关针灸治疗癌痛疗效的现有证据。使用“针灸”、“电针灸”、“耳针”等 MeSH 术语，对六个电子数据库（PubMed、EBSCO、Cochrane Library、Scielo、b-On 和 Scopus）进行了搜索，查找从建库之初到 2022 年有关癌症患者疼痛缓解的相关文章。针灸”、“针灸镇痛”、“肿瘤疼痛”和“癌症疼痛”。研究包括随机对照试验（RCT），其中将针灸与不治疗、安慰剂针灸或常规护理进行比较。三位独立评审员参与数据提取和偏倚风险评估，并进行荟萃分析。主要结果是疼痛强度，通过视觉模拟量表、数字评级量表或简短疼痛清单进行测量。还评估的次要结果是生活质量、功能、口干、疼痛干扰和镇痛药消耗。结果表示为标准化平均差 (SMD)，置信区间 (CI) 为 95%。荟萃分析中纳入了 16 项随机对照试验，共有 1124 名受试者，其中大多数研究的偏倚风险较低或不明确。针灸在减轻疼痛方面比不治疗 (SMD = –0.90, 95 % CI [–1.68, –0.12])、假针灸 (SMD = –1.10, 95 % CI [–1.59, –0.61]) 或常规护理更有效（SMD = –1.16，95% CI [–1.38，–0.93]）。这项研究的结果表明，针灸可能是减轻癌症相关疼痛的有效干预措施。尽管由于一些纳入研究的质量低、样本量小以及癌症的类型和阶段不同而存在一些限制，但针灸可能提供有效且安全的治疗来减轻癌症疼痛。