SABCS: Acupuncture Beneficial for Cognition in Breast Cancer

FRIDAY, Dec. 12, 2025 (HealthDay News) — For women with a history of breast cancer, real (RA) and sham acupuncture (SA) produce clinically meaningful improvements in perceived cognitive impairment, according to a study presented at the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held from Dec. 9 to 12 in San Antonio.

Jun J. Mao, M.D., from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and colleagues conducted a three-arm randomized clinical trial among 260 women with a history of stage 0 to III breast cancer who completed active treatment and had self-reported moderate or greater cancer-related cognitive difficulties and insomnia. Participants were randomly assigned to receive RA, SA, or usual care (UC) in a 2:1:1 ratio; acupuncture treatments were delivered once a week for 10 weeks.

The researchers found that participants in RA and SA groups reported clinically meaningful improvements in perceived cognitive impairment measured by Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Cognitive Function by week 10 (10.3 and 10.5, respectively), while a 4.8-point improvement was seen for participants in the UC group. Compared with UC, RA was significantly more effective for reducing perceived cognitive impairment at week 10 and week 26; at neither timepoint was the difference between RA and SA significant. Relative to SA, RA improved objective cognitive function measured by Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised at week 10.

“By comparing real acupuncture to sham acupuncture, and not just to usual care, we were able to better understand whether the benefits were due to the acupuncture technique itself or to the overall experience,” Mao said in a statement.

One author disclosed ties to the health care industry.

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