Virtual acupressure for symptom management in cancer populations during COVID-19: A retrospective analysis

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The COVID-19 outbreak has disrupted access to in-person acupuncture services for symptom management among cancer patients. A virtual acupuncturist-guided, patient self-acupressure intervention was implemented to help mitigate cancer-related symptoms. We provide preliminary findings on the impact of remotely delivered acupressure services on patient-reported symptom burden in cancer patients. Methods: The study population was cancer patients who received virtual acupressure intervention at a single academic cancer center from May 11 to December 31, 2020. At the start of each session, symptom burden was evaluated with the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale-Revised Version (ESAS-R). The ESAS-R consists of 9 symptoms, each scored on a 0-10 scale, with higher scores indicating greater symptom burden. The ESAS-R includes the physical (score 0-60) and emotional subscales (score 0-20). For patientswith at least one follow-up within 14 days of the baseline visit, paired t-test was used to analyze changes in ESAS-R scores from baseline to first follow-up. Results: A total of 102 virtual acupressure sessions were administered to 32 patients. A majority of the patients were females (90.6%) and white (84.4%), and the mean age was 55.7 (range = 26-82;SD = 15.73). The most common cancer diagnosis was breast (53.1%), followed by pancreas (12.5%) and lung (9.4%). Baseline ESAS-R total, physical, and emotional scores were 21.5 (SD = 11.05), 12.4 (SD = 7.54), and 5.2 (SD = 3.82), respectively. Of 32 patients, 13 had follow-up in 14 days or less. For these 13 patients, there was a statistically significant reduction in total symptom burden (-4.85±7.6;p = 0.04) and in physical (-3.5±5.36;p = 0.038) and emotional (-1.2±1.79;p = 0.029) subscales from baseline to follow-up. Conclusion: Virtual acupressure was associated with significant reduction in symptom burden among cancer patients from their baseline to follow-up visits. Larger-scale randomized clinical studies needed to confirm these findings and better understand the impact of virtual acupressure on symptom burden in cancer populations.