Therapeutic effects of moxibustion on experimental tumor

Moxibustion for the Treatment of Cancer and its Complications: Efficacies and Mechanisms

Cancer treatment remains a significant challenge for the medical community, and improved therapies are necessary to treat cancer and its associated complications. Current anticancer therapies often have significant side effects, underscoring the need for new treatment options. Moxibustion is a representative external therapy used in traditional Chinese medicine. This review examines clinical studies demonstrating moxibustion's ability to improve the efficacy of radiotherapy and chemotherapy and control tumor progression. Moxibustion can prevent and treat various complications of cancer, including cancer-related or therapy-induced gastrointestinal symptoms, myelosuppression, fatigue, pain, and postoperative lymphedema. has also been shown to enhance the quality of life for cancer patients. However, very few studies have investigated the underlying mechanisms for these effects, a topic that requires systematic elucidation. Evidence has shown that moxibustion alone or combined with chemotherapy can improve survival and inhibit tumor growth in cancer-bearing animal models. The anticancer effect of moxibustion is associated with alleviating the tumor immunosuppressive and vascular microenvironments. Additionally, the therapeutic effects of moxibustion may originate from the heat and radiation produced during the combustion process on acupoints or lesions. This evidence provides a scientific basis for the clinical application of moxibustion in anticancer treatment and reducing the side effects of cancer therapies and helps promote the precise application of moxibustion in cancer treatment.

How does moxibustion possibly work?

“Acupmoxa” is a hybrid word of “acupuncture” and “moxibustion” that more closely resembles the Chinese ideograph for this treatment. People in Western countries are more familiar with acupuncture, while moxibustion is less popular, partially due to the paucity of scientific studies. Although the evidence-based efficacy of moxibustion needs to be further clarified, the mechanisms by which moxibustion may work include temperature-related and nontemperature-related ones. Local somatothermal stimulation (LSTS), one type of moxibustion, is achieved by application of a heat source to and above the acupoint. Such mild heat stimulation of the acupoint induces little skin damage, in contrast to the burning effect of moxibustion, but does provoke mild oxidative stress in the viscera. Thus, preconditioned LSTS at the peripheral acupoints LR 14 and PC 6 of animals is able to induce visceral HSP70 expression and to protect the liver and the heart against ischemia-reperfusion injury. Nontemperature-related mechanisms include smoke, herbs, and biophysical (far infrared) stimulation. We conclude that LSTS, a remote preconditioning method, has potential clinical usefulness. However, evidence-based efficacy and safety studies involving large-scaled clinical trials are needed in order that this approach will pass muster with Western scientists.

The Role of Acupuncture in Cancer Supportive Care

Acupuncture has many beneficial effects during cancer therapy and has proven efficacy in the management of side effects induced by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In this review, we discussed the benefits of acupuncture on cancer patients. In cancer pain management, acupuncture is effective for head and neck pain, waist pain, abdominal and chest pain. Many studies confirm the excellent efficacy of acupuncture against symptoms of vomiting and nausea, including those induced by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Head and neck cancer patients receiving radiotherapy may develop xerostomia, which may be relieved by acupuncture. Acupuncture may also cause sedative and hypnotic effects in cancer patients for treating nervousness and insomnia.

The different immunomodulation of indirect moxibustion on normal subjects and patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Moxibustion has been thought to enhance immunity in healthy condition, but suppress abnormal immune response in disease status. We collected 12 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and 12 healthy women who received indirect moxibustion on acupuncture points ST-36 (Zusanli) and SP-6 (Sanyinjiao) 20 minutes per day for 1 week. During the course, there were no changes of their regular medications or intercurrent infections in normal subjects and SLE patients. We found that indirect moxibustion for 1 week could elevate CD3+ and CD4+ T-lymphocytes in normal subjects, whereas decrease relative proportions of CD8+ T-lymphocytes in patients with SLE. This result confirms that indirect moxibustion has different immunomodulation in normal condition and autoimmune status. However, whether immunomodulatory effects of indirect moxibustion are beneficial for normal subjects and patients with SLE require further confirmation.