Acupuncture in the treatment of cancer patients – Video

Stephen Birch talks about the research into the role of acupuncture in the treatment of cancer patients. In recent years, acupuncture has made considerable progress as a supportive treatment for cancer patients. Stephen Birch says it is accepted and emerging evidence of the effectiveness of acupuncture for a wide range of symptoms in cancer patients. Calls have begun to include acupuncture in health packages for cancer patients with a growing movement in “integrative oncology”. Oncology experts, authorities and health authorities have taken the evidence for the efficacy and safety of acupuncture to heart and made many recommendations for the use of acupuncture in cancer patients. With this growing acceptance and the frequent desire to use acupuncture as a supportive therapy in cancer treatment among both oncologists and patients, it is important to develop a better understanding of how acupuncture can be used in oncology.
The first part of Stephen Birch´s lecture examines the current evidence of efficacy and safety as well as the range of applications of acupuncture. It also examines safety issues, limitations and prohibitions on the use of acupuncture. The lecturer will briefly discuss why there is a gap between interest in acupuncture in oncology and what we can do about it.
The second part of the lecture will briefly examine how acupuncture has been and can be used to help with the various health and wellness challenges faced by patients as they go through different stages of cancer diagnosis and treatment, with suggestions and clinical examples of how they can help the patient in any case. The lecturer will deal with the questions of dose and timing of the patient’s treatment, not his symptoms. The instructor is a specialist in Japanese acupuncture, and while examples focus on the application of methods, the instructor’s familiar treatment ideas will be presented more widely to help physicians from different backgrounds decide how to help their patients with cancer.

This video is in English only.

Video from the TCM Congress in Rothenburg 2019, ID 302, S25041