A randomized controlled study of auricular point acupressure to manage chemotherapy-induced neuropathy: Study protocol.

Objective: Chemotherapy-induced neuropathy (CIN) significantly impacts cancer patients, leading to functional disability, diminished quality of life, and increased healthcare costs amid the ongoing opioid crisis. Auricular point acupressure (APA), a non-invasive and non-pharmacological alternative, has shown potential for alleviating the pain, numbness, and tingling associated with CIN. This study aims to assess the efficacy of APA for CIN symptoms and physical function and to examine the mechanisms underlying APA's effects on CIN.
Methods: This is a three-arm randomized controlled clinical trial protocol. Patients aged 18 and older who are experiencing CIN are randomly assigned to one of the three groups: an APA group (in-person APA; mAPA), a sham control group (virtual APA; vAPA), and a wait-list usual care control group (UC). During the four-week program, participants in the mAPA receive an in-person APA treatment and training; the sham control participants (vAPA) receive a self-guided smartphone APA application with APA demonstration videos; and the UC participants will continue with the usual care and be re-randomized into one of the APA groups. The primary outcomes are changes in CIN symptoms and physical function. Secondary outcomes include evaluating pain sensory thresholds, motor and cognitive functioning, inflammatory signaling, brain connectivity, opioid use, and quality of life. The outcomes are measured at baseline, program completion (4 weeks), and at monthly follow-up for 3 months post-intervention.
Discussion: This study will provide evidence supporting the potential viability of APA as an intervention for CIN.
Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, ID NCT04920097 registered on 3 June 2021.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2024 Lukkahatai et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)