In order to attempt to reduce the impact of adverse effects produced by oncological treatments, cancer patients frequently turn to complementary integrative therapies.~Among them, acupuncture has been characterized by a growing role in cancer-related symptoms management in last 10 years.~After FDA approval for use as a medical device in 1996, the application of this technique in oncology has been on the rise in the Western countries.~By modulating brain regions involved in cognition and emotion, some degree of successful symptom management with acupuncture has been demonstrated in oncology In the context of head and neck cancer, the first application of acupuncture was related to chronic shoulder pain and dysfunction following neck dissection.~The primary objective of the study is to compare the effect of acupuncture and standard treatment on swallowing function assessed with MDADI scale (MD Anderson Dysphagia Inventory) 2 weeks after the end of RT (end of treatment, EoT).
This is a randomized phase 2 study on the impact of acupuncture on acute dysphagia in patients treated with radio-chemotherapy for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma