The Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC)’s Post

A project particularly dear to me is successfully published in BMC Medicine (2023 IF: 7.0). Not only is it my very first grant-funded research, it's also one that develops following my experience caring for my dad as he endured with cancer pain without adequate relief from conventional analgesics. In this study, using claims data, we sought to evaluate the real-world effectiveness and value of acupuncture for cancer pain. While adjusted results did not show a significant difference in overall outcomes between acupuncture-treated and non-treated patients, interesting findings emerged from our exploratory analyses: 🔍 Breast cancer patients treated specifically for pain reported reduced use of analgesics 🔍 Those with high acupuncture utilization saw lower healthcare costs These insights highlight the potential role acupuncture could play in supportive care. Nevertheless, not everyone benefits from acupuncture, so future studies should focus on finding ways to prescreen responders and monitor treatment response at the clinics to facilitate reimbursement using pragmatic trial designs. I would like to thank Drs Alexandre Chan, PharmD, MPH, FCCP, FISOPP, BCPS, BCOP, APh and Sherry Yun WANG for the support they have rendered to ensure the successful completion of this project. I am also very grateful for PhRMA Foundation to have awarded the fellowship that has facilitated my pursuit of this research. This project would not have been possible without their continued belief in the value of this work. Finally, I will be attending the #SIO2024 at City of Hope from October 25-27. Feel free to reach out to learn more about the project and collaborate in future research! https://lnkd.in/gzJEuMfh #Cancer #CancerResearch #CancerPain #CancerSurvivorship #SupportiveCare #BreastCancer #IntegrativeOncology #Acupuncture #RWE #RWD UCI School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences Chapman University School of Pharmacy