Acupuncture has been studied to help relieve pain in cancer patients. The results are mixed due to small sample sizes and design problems.

Cancer pain
Most clinical trials of acupuncture for cancer pain use conventional acupuncture methods with needles in different parts of the body.
In one review, acupuncture reduced cancer pain in some patients with various cancers, although the studies were small. Another review concluded acupuncture with pain medicine worked better than the pain medicine alone. This review was limited by poor quality of clinical trials.

A 2020 clinical trial to treat cancer pain showed that the combination of wrist-ankle acupuncture and auricular acupuncture was effective in reducing pain and use of pain medication. The study was limited by small size, lack of a placebo group, and short follow-up.

Postoperative pain
In several randomized clinical trials on pain after surgery, acupuncture reduced the pain, but sample sizes were small and additional treatments were unknown. Some studies reported that when acupuncture was used with standard care, pain relief was better.

In two randomized clinical trials in patients having a bone marrow aspiration and biopsy, acupressure was found to relieve pain and anxiety compared to sham acupressure.

Muscle and joint pain from aromatase inhibitors
Aromatase inhibitors, a type of hormone therapy for postmenopausal women who have hormone-dependent breast cancer, may cause muscle and joint pain.

Five randomized controlled trials compared the effects of real and sham acupuncture in reducing pain. All five trials showed no side effects from either real acupuncture or sham acupuncture. Two trials showed real acupuncture was better than sham acupuncture in relieving joint and muscle pain, but the other three trials did not. In two of the studies, patients receiving real acupuncture had more pain relief than a control group of patients who were waiting to receive treatment later. Observational studies have also reported both real acupuncture and sham acupuncture may relieve pain more than standard care. A review of 17,922 patients reported that real acupuncture relieved pain better than sham acupuncture.

Muscle and joint pain in cancer survivors
In a 2021 randomized clinical trial of 360 cancer survivors with muscle and joint pain, patients reported better pain relief from acupuncture compared to standard care.

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy Peripheral neuropathy is a common side effect of chemotherapy that can cause pain, paresthesia, sensory loss, and muscle weakness. These symptoms can cause a patient to delay or end treatment. Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) can affect quality of life and may last long after chemotherapy has ended.

The current standard of care for CIPN is symptom management such as narcotics and antidepressants. However, treatment may not relieve all of the pain, and cause dizziness, sedation, dry mouth, and constipation.

Some randomized clinical trials of acupuncture have shown promise in treating CIPN. More evidence is needed to explore how acupuncture may relieve symptoms of CIPN and to find out which patients may benefit most from acupuncture. For more information about these studies, see the Acupuncture to treat persistent CIPN from taxane or platinum-based chemotherapy section of the health professional version of Acupuncture.