ReviewHealthcare (Basel, Switzerland)2026
Evaluating Acupuncture for Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathic Pain: A Narrative Review of Clinical Evidence and Mechanistic Perspectives.
Review in Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND/
objectivesDespite the high prevalence of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathic pain (CIPNp), its management remains challenging, and reliable preventive strategies are still lacking. Current treatment is largely symptomatic and often provides only modest benefits, as available pharmacological therapies have shown limited and inconsistent efficacy. In this context, acupuncture has been investigated as a non-pharmacological intervention, but the certainty and clinical applicability of the available evidence remain unclear. This critical narrative review examines the clinical evidence, mechanistic plausibility, and current research gaps concerning acupuncture for CIPNp.
methodsA non-systematic narrative review was conducted with preference given to peer-reviewed articles published in English, including clinical trials, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, clinical guidelines, mechanistic studies, and narrative reviews considered relevant to the objectives. Publications were not selected according to a predefined systematic protocol, and no formal quality assessment, risk-of-bias analysis, or meta-analysis was performed. The extracted information was organized thematically rather than quantitatively.
resultsClinical trials and evidence syntheses suggest that acupuncture may be associated with reductions in pain and sensory symptoms in some patients with CIPN. However, confidence in these findings is limited by small samples sizes, heterogeneous acupuncture protocols, variable comparators and outcome measures, and limited long-term follow-up. Much of the proposed mechanistic rationale derives from animal models or human studies in non-CIPN pain conditions.
conclusionsAcupuncture may be considered a monitored adjunctive option for selected patients with persistent CIPNp. More rigorous and adequately powered trials are required to determine efficacy, optimal treatment protocols, durability of benefit, and potential treatment-response modifiers.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.