Table 1.
Characteristics of the Included Studies.
| No | Authors | Country | No. of subjects in each arm (experimental: control) | Chemotherapy drug | Acupuncture group | Control group intervention | Assessment of outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acupoints | Intervention | Intervention dose (mins) | |||||||
| 1 | Beith et al 29 | Australia | 14:16 | AC FEC |
PC6/IL4/ST36 | Electro-acupuncture | 80 | Sham Electro-acupuncture | Nausea and vomiting/WBC/Neutrophil |
| 2 | Hu and Zhao 31 | China | 30:30 | TAC | ST36/SP6/SP10/BL23 | Acupuncture | 150 | Western medicine routine | WBC/Neutrophil |
| 3 | Ji et al 38 | China | 48:44 | Anthracycline-taxane | ST36/SP6/CV8/ST35/ST41 | Moxibustion | 2400 | Without moxibustion | WBC/ANC |
| 4 | Li 36 | China | 36:36 | Anthracycline-taxane | ST36/SP6/CV8/CV4/CV6 | Moxibustion | 2835 | Western medicine routine | WBC/QoL/Neutrophil |
| 5 | Lu et al 34 | China | 30:30 | n/a | BL20/BL24/CV12/CV4 | Moxibustion | 420 | Routine care | WBC/BFI |
| 6 | Liu 35 | China | 50:50 | TEC | CV12/CV4/ST36/CV6/SP10/BL20/BL21/BL17 | Moxibustion | 320 | Western medicine routine | WBC/vomiting |
| 7 | Meng and Lü 30 | China | 27:27 | CAF | ST36/ST25/BL21/BL17/CV6/SP6/SP4/HT7 | Acupoint catgut-embedding + moxibustion | 10080 | Western medicine routine | WBC/ nausea/vomiting |
| 8 | Shi 37 | China | 30:28 | n/a | GV20/CV12/CV4/CV6/CV3/GV4/GV3/GV2 | Electro-acupuncture | 210 | Sham Electro-acupuncture | WBC/Neutrophil nausea/vomiting |
| 9 | Xie et al 33 | China | 23:23 | FEC | ST36/BL23 | Acupoint catgut-embedding | NA | Western medicine and Chinese decoction | WBC/ Neutrophil |
| 10 | Zhu et al 32 | China | 40:38 | CAT, CET | ST36/SP10/BL26/SP6/BL23/BL18 | Acupuncture | 150 | Western medicine | WBC |
Abbreviations: BFI, brief fatigue inventory; n/a, not mentioned; CAF, cyclophosphamide/Adriamycin/5-fluorouracil; FEC, 5-Fluorouracil/Epirubicin /cyclophosphamide; AC, Adriamycin/Cyclophosphamide; TAC, Taxotere/Adriamycin/Cyclophosphamide; TAC, Taxotere/Adriamycin/cyclophosphamide; TEC, Taxotere/epirubicin/cyclophosphamide; CAT, cyclophosphamide/Adriamycin/Taxotere; CET, cyclophosphamide/epirubicin/Taxotere.