Acupuncture Improves Perceived Cognition With a Modest Memory Edge for Real Needling
Results presented at SABCS highlight a mismatch between self-reported and objective cognition, prompting calls for larger trials in objectively impaired patients.
Overview
- The ENHANCE Phase II trial randomized 260 female breast cancer survivors to real acupuncture (129), sham acupuncture (70), or usual care (61) after treatment, with weekly sessions for 10 weeks and assessments at 10 and 26 weeks.
- Perceived cognitive impairment improved by about 10 points on FACT-Cog PCI with both real and sham acupuncture versus roughly 4.8 points with usual care, with no difference between real and sham at either time point.
- Real acupuncture beat sham on the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test at week 10 by about 4 points, with a stronger signal among participants who were objectively impaired at baseline.
- Only about 30% of participants met objective impairment criteria despite reporting moderate to severe difficulties, underscoring discordance between patient-reported and objective measures.
- Adverse events were mild and infrequent (bruising 3.1% in the real acupuncture arm), and insomnia and sleep fragmentation correlated with worse objective cognition; single-center, female-only, pandemic-era conduct limits generalizability.