Abstract PD8-05: Effectiveness of Electroacupuncture Versus Auricular Acupuncture in Reducing Pain and Improving Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Survivors with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain

Abstract Introduction: Chronic musculoskeletal pain is common and debilitating among breast cancer survivors. Recently, the Personalized Electroacupuncture (EA) versus Auricular Acupuncture (AA) Comparative Effectiveness (PEACE) trial demonstrated that both acupuncture methods reduced pain more than usual care (UC) in cancer survivors. However, the comparative effectiveness between EA and AA among breast cancer survivors is unknown. Here, we report the results of subgroup analysis of breast cancer survivors enrolled in the PEACE trial. Methods: PEACE is a three-arm, parallel, single center randomized trial investigating the effectiveness of EA and AA versus UC for chronic musculoskeletal pain in 360 cancer survivors. Patients in both EA and AA received ten weekly treatments. Patients in UC could receive ten EA treatments after week 12. The primary endpoint was the change in mean Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) pain intensity from baseline to week 12; change from baseline to week 24 and change in quality of life were secondary endpoints. We analyzed the subset of 46% of trial participants with a primary diagnosis of breast cancer. We conducted constrained linear mixed model analyses, which constrained all arms to have a common pre-randomization baseline mean. Model-based mean estimates at weeks 12 and 24 were compared between arms using model contrasts. Results: Among 165 breast cancer survivors, the baseline mean pain severity was 5.35 (95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 5.04, 5.66). At week 12, the BPI pain severity score was 2.69 (2.26. 3.13) in EA, 3.60 (3.17, 4.02) in AA, and 5.06 (4.47, 5.65) in UC. At week 24, the mean BPI pain severity was 2.84 (95% CI: 2.40, 3.28) in EA and 3.67 (95% CI: 3.23, 4.10) in AA. EA reduced pain severity significantly more than AA at both week 12, (-0.90 [-1.45, -0.36], p=0.001) and week 24 (-0.82, [-1.38, -0.27], p=0.004). There were no differences between EA and AA in improvements in PROMIS physical health or mental health component scores, but both EA and AA significantly improved both PROMIS scores at week 12 compared to UC. Mild toxicities were reported, more patients dropped out of the AA arm due to ear pain. Conclusions: EA was more effective than AA at reducing pain severity, but both similarly improved physical and mental health scores. Breast cancer survivors with chronic musculoskeletal pain may consider EA before AA. Citation Format: Ting Bao, W. Iris Zhi, Raymond Baser, Qing Li, Jun Mao. Effectiveness of Electroacupuncture Versus Auricular Acupuncture in Reducing Pain and Improving Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Survivors with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr PD8-05.