title: Acupuncture for hot flashes in women with breast cancer: A systematic review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Acupuncture is applied worldwide in treating hot flashes (HFs), which may be a common complication experienced by women with breast cancer (BC). Although researches associated with the effect of acupuncture for HFs have been done by many people, there is a lack of comprehensive evaluation of the effect of this therapy.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this systematic review is to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture for HFs in women with BC.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seven databases (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, and Wan Fang Database) were searched from their inceptions to June 2015 without language restrictions. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were aggregated to evaluate the therapeutic effect of acupuncture for HFs in women with BC.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twelve RCTs were identified at last, and all of the studies agreed on the potential therapeutic effect of acupuncture for HFs in women with BC. However, three trials showed significant difference compared with the controls. One research demonstrated an encouraging trend, and six did not find any difference between acupuncture and controls. Another two trials got a negative result compared with hormone therapy. The meta-analysis indicated a difference in the number of HFs after treatment and during follow-up compared with the controls. Three trials reported Kupperman index scores, and meta-analysis showed significant difference between acupuncture and controls after treatment and during follow-up.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Acupuncture seems to be an effective therapy for HFs in women with BC; however, there was insufficient evidence to support the efficacy of acupuncture. However, the results should be interpreted cautiously, because of the poor quality and small number of included studies.
authors.affiliation: School of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Yu-Pei
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Yuan-Yuan
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: School of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Yan-Ping
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Acupuncture Department of Jiangsu Province Hospital, Nanjing 210000, China.
authors.forename: Huan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Yi-Fan
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: School of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D019584:Hot Flashes / Q000209:etiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D011788:Quality of Life; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D016896:Treatment Outcome