Ya-Wen Shih
Taipei Medical University, Taiwan
Title: The effectiveness of acupressure for relieving chemotherapy-induced bone marrow suppression
Biography
Biography: Ya-Wen Shih
Abstract
Aim: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of non-invasive acupressure on the prevention and improve of chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression among patients with gynecologic cancer.
Methods: A double-blind, randomised controll trial with total of 28 women underwent chemotherapy were randomly assigned to experimental group (n=10) receiving acupressures on Hegu (LI4), Quchi (LI11); Xuehai (SP10); Sanyin-jiao (SP6), Taixi (K3), Zusanli (ST36), Taichong (LR3); and Baihui (GV20), 5 min each, 3 times a day for 6 weeks; or randomly assigned to control group received usual care (n=18). The blood counts, including WBCs, platelets, and hemoglobin, and the blood levels of SCF and GM-CSF were collected for analysed.
Results: The concentration of blood hemoglobin was significantly decreased from 11.6±2.2mg/dL (Mean±SD) to 10.8 ±1.6mg/dL (P=0.03) in control group after 6 weeks, but there was not a significantly different of hemoglobin concentration before (11.4mg±1.0) and after (10.9mg±1.1) chemotherapy in acupressure group. The levels of SCF were significantly increased before and after chemotherapy in both control group (from1196.10±293.17ng/mL to 1325.05±253.77ng/mL; p=0.01) and acupressure group (from1046.78±469.52ng/mL to 1387.06±310.00ng/mL; p=0.007), and the borderline difference (p=0.05) of increased mean difference of SCF before and after 6 weeks of receiving chemotherapy was found between acupressure group (340.28ng/mL±255.46) and control group (128.94ng/mL±250.64). There was a significantly interaction effect between acupressure and time-dependent manner to increase blood level of SCF when the acupressure was conducted for 6 weeks (b=211.34, p=0.02).
Conclusion: Acupressure is a recommended novel strategy for clinical application to the alleviation of myelosuppression induced by chemotherapy, and the effect was associated with the regulation of expression of stem cell factor (SCF).