Auriculotherapy effectively reduces fatigue and improves quality of life in cancer patients.

No or only minor adverse events were observed with auriculotherapy.

Low evidence for treatment effect due to limited studies and poor methodological quality.

Auriculotherapy for cancer-related fatigue has been investigated in various clinical trials; nonetheless, their conclusions remain inconsistent. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, the efficacy and safety of auriculotherapy for cancer-related fatigue were investigated.

Randomized controlled trials were identified by searching seven English databases (PubMed, Embase, AMED, Web of Science, CINAHL, CENTRAL, PsycINFO) and four Chinese databases (CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, CBMdisc), covering records from their inception to August 1, 2024. The version 2 of the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials was used to assess the risk of bias. Evidence certainty was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach with the GRADEprofiler software (version 3.6.1). Meta-analyses were performed using Review Manager 5.3.

Fourteen studies involving 1033 patients were included. These studies had some methodological limitations. The certainty of evidence for all outcomes was graded as “very low”. Meta-analysis revealed that auriculotherapy significantly improved cancer-related fatigue (standardized mean difference [SMD] -1.26; 95 % confidence interval [CI] [-1.69, -0.82]; P < 0.00001) and quality of life (SMD 1.01; 95 % CI [0.55, 1.47]; P < 0.0001). Auriculotherapy was associated with a favorable safety profile and a low incidence of adverse events.

The results indicate that auriculotherapy is a promising, effective, and safe intervention for managing cancer-related fatigue, although higher-quality trials are needed to strengthen this conclusion owing to limitations in the current evidence base.

Auriculotherapy

Fatigue

Meta-analysis

Neoplasms

Systematic review

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