Abdominal acupuncture combined with megestrol acetate for advanced cancer-related anorexia: A randomized controlled trial

Objective: To observe the clinical effect difference between abdominal acupuncture combined with megestrol acetate and megestrol acetate for advanced cancer-related anorexia. Methods: A total of 60 patients with advanced cancer-related anorexia were randomly divided into an abdominal acupuncture combined with oral megestrol acetate treatment group (group A) and oral megestrol acetate treatment group (group B), with 30 cases in each group. Both groups were given nutritional assessment, nutritional supplementation, improvement of constipation, correction of electrolyte disturbance and other general treatments. In addition, group B was given another 160 mg megestrol acetate dispersible tablet once a day. Group A was treated with abdominal acupuncture on the basis of group B treatment, 5 times a week, and both the groups were treated for 2 weeks. The appetite visual analog scale (VAS), Karnofsky (KPS) score, and body weight of the two groups were observed before and after treatment, and the clinical efficacy was evaluated. Results: After treatment, the appetite VAS in the both groups were lower than those before treatment, the Karnofsky (KPS) scores were higher than those before treatment, and the differences were statistically significant (both P < 0.05).The differences of appetite VAS and KPS score before and after treatment in group A were higher than those of group B, and the differences were statistically significant (both P < 0.05). After treatment, the body weights of the two groups were higher than those before treatment, and the difference of group A before and after treatment was higher than that of group B, but the difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05).The effective rate of group A was 76.7% and that of group B was 50%, the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Abdominal acupuncture combined with oral megestrol acetate and oral megestrol acetate both can effectively improve the appetite and functional status of patients with advanced cancer-related anorexia. Abdominal acupuncture can improve the curative effect, which is better than that of western medication alone, providing a new idea for the treatment of advanced cancer-related anorexia in the future. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of World Journal of Acupuncture Moxibustion House.