Study of acupuncture as sleep therapy for breast cancer survivors seeks participants

David Spiegel

Could acupuncture help ease sleep problems and improve fatigue and quality of life for breast cancer survivors? That’s a question being examined at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and researchers here are seeking participants for a clinical trial on the subject.

According to research, about 80 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer and undergoing chemotherapy will have non-optimal sleep, and nearly 60 percent of cancer patients will experience chronic sleep problems even after their treatment is complete. “It might not be insomnia, but it won’t be perfect sleep,” said Oxana Palesh, PhD, MPH, acting assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a co- investigator on the study.

For many, sleep difficulties become a quality-of-life issue. “When you haven’t had a good night’s sleep, you feel edgy and have more trouble calming yourself,” explained principal investigator David Spiegel, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. “This means, in relation to cancer, that you have more difficulty managing the many stressors associated with the disease” and its aftermath.

“It can be an ongoing problem that interferes with good survivorship,” added Spiegel, an expert on stress and health who also directs the Stanford Center for Integrative Medicine. Both he and Palesh are members of the Stanford Cancer Center.

Spiegel said there is a small amount of literature suggesting that acupuncture can be helpful at improving sleep, in part through its effect on pain, which can disrupt sleep. “But fewer studies have looked at the direct effects of acupuncture on sleep, which is why we’re doing this,” he said.

For the National Institutes of Health-funded study, the researchers are recruiting 64 women with primary or metastatic breast cancer to learn more about sleep disturbance and to study the use of acupuncture to treat the problem.

During the study, participants will be randomized to receive 12 sessions of real acupuncture or sham acupuncture (which involves the placement of needles in areas not intended to stimulate known acupuncture points) over a six-week period. They will complete questionnaires, wear a watchlike device to record sleep information and provide blood and saliva samples, and they will be monitored up to one month after the conclusion of treatment.

To participate in the study, the breast cancer patients must be finished with chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, and have sleep problems. Participants must be proficient enough in English to fill out questionnaires and perform the required tasks, and must be willing to travel to Stanford for assessments. Acupuncture sessions are offered at several convenient locations in the Peninsula and South Bay.

Volunteers will receive modest reimbursement for travel, parking and participation.

Those interested in the study can contact Colleen Fitzsimmons at (650) 721-1069 or cfitzsimmons@stanford.edu.