Acupuncture: A Treatment for Chemotherapy-Induced Mucositis

Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment can often suffer a number of unanticipated complications. For many of them, acupuncture can treat nasty symptoms; it’s backed by real clinical trials and studies.

This month, I’m going to talk about mucositis, a condition that anyone receiving chemotherapy treatment of the head and neck may be all too familiar with.

(And for those interested in older posts, I’ve covered chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, aromatase inhibitor therapy, and peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) symptoms so far.)

What is Mucositis?

Mucositis is the painful inflammation, and in worst cases ulceration, of the mucous membranes that line the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, beginning at the mouth and ending at the bathroom:

Mucous membranes line the entirety of our GI tracts. They’re responsible for producing the mucus that coats and protects it from the billions of bacteria in our gut and the hydrochloric acid in our stomachs. So when the mucous membrane is damaged (e.g., inflamed), ulceration can easily occur.

Mucositis is a potential complication of chemotherapy, especially for patients receiving oral and throat treatments. Oral mucositis is the most common form of mucositis; it can be both debilitatingly painful as well as embarrassing and stressful.

How Can Acupuncture Help?

Just as it has been documented to help relieve and sometimes even treat the symptoms of many other chemotherapy-induced conditions, acupuncture can help ease the pain of mucositis. This has been proven by numerous published studies.

Not only is this encouraging for cancer patients, it’s also extremely interesting. Contact-based acupuncture is applied directly to the skin at specific acupoints, while mucositis is primarily an internal condition. Yet acupuncture has been shown to help relieve mucositis pain regardless. The exact science behind why acupuncture works remains misunderstood, but real-life studies like these that prove its worth in unexpected situations are certainly worth sharing.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll look at these studies to explain how acupuncture helps relieve the symptoms of mucositis, as well as the types of preliminary treatment I could offer. Stay tuned.