Clinical observation on the effect of acupuncture treatment to improve digestive system symptoms of malignant tumor patients

Objective To observe the therapeutic effect of acupuncture for treatment of malignant tumor patients with symptoms of digestive system.Methods We carried out a cohort study and enrolled 92 malignant tumor patients hospitalized at Yantai cancer hospital from July 2008 to Jun 2009.They were randomly divided into three groups by the random number table with the ratio of 1 ∶ 1 ∶ 1.The three groups were pattern differentiation acupuncture group that including excess and deficiency syndromes,non pattern differentiation acupuncture group and the western medicine control group.Patients in pattern differentiation acupuncture group accept different acupuncture treatment with different acupoints according to their pattern.Patients in non pattern differentiation acupuncture group only accept acupuncture treatment with fixed acupoints.All patients in the two groups accepted acupuncture treatment one times per day,seven days is a course of treatment.Western medicine control group get routine chemotherapy including CTX,ADM,VCR,VP-16,PDD,MTX 5-FU,and symptomatic and support treatment were added according to the patients symptoms.Efficacy of all groups were evaluated and compared after one course of treatment.Results (1) Comparison of symptom change scores:①Inner group comparison:Patients' symptoms were significantly improved after treatment in pattern differentiation acupuncture group and non pattern differentiation acupuncture group (P＜0.05); The difference of patients' symptoms before and after treatment didn't show statistical significance in western medicine control group differences (P＜0.05).② Comparison among groups:Compared with western medicine control group,the difference among pattern differentiation acupuncture group and non pattern differentiation acupuncture group were statistically significant after treatment (t=2.212,1.989,P＜0.05),the difference between pattern differentiation acupuncture group and non pattern differentiation acupuncture group didn't show statistically significant (t=1.548,P＞0.05).(2) Improvement of digestive system symptoms:Compared with western medicine control group,the difference among pattern differentiation acupuncture group and non pattern differentiation acupuncture group was statistically significant after treatment (x2=15.28,13.45,P＜0.05),the difference between pattern differentiation acupuncture group and non pattern differentiation acupuncture group didn't show statistically significant (x2=9.81,P＞0.05).Conclusion Acupuncture treatment can improve the symptoms of digestive system of malignant tumor patients. Key words: Malignant tumor;  Symptoms of digestive system;  Acupuncture treatment