Acupuncture has proven to be a viable remedy for hot flashes in a new study of breast cancer patients being treated with estrogen-targeting therapies.

The findings are based on an analysis, carried out by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, involving 120 breast cancer survivors, who reported experiencing multiple hot flashes per day.

The women were divided into four groups to determine how effectively an acupuncture technique known as electroacupuncture — in which embedded needles deliver weak electrical currents — reduces incidents of hot flashes as compared to the drug gabapentin.

For an eight-week period, participants received gabapentin daily, an inactive placebo daily, electroacupuncture (twice per week for two weeks, then once weekly), or a fake electroacupuncture, which involved no actual needle penetration or electrical current.

At the end of the study, the patients in the electroacupuncture group showed the greatest improvement in hot flash frequency and severity.

"Acupuncture is an exotic therapy, elicits the patient's active participation, and involves a greater patient-provider interaction, compared with taking a pill," said lead researcher Jun J. Mao, M.D., associate professor of family medicine and community health.

Dr. Mao noted hot flashes are particularly severe and frequent in breast cancer survivors, but many approved remedies, such as hormone replacement therapies, are off-limits to breast cancer survivors because they include estrogen.

"Though most people associate hot flashes with menopause, the episodes also affect many breast cancer survivors who have low estrogen levels and often undergo premature menopause, following treatment with chemotherapy or surgery," he added.

"These latest results clearly show promise for managing hot flashes experienced by breast cancer survivors through the use of acupuncture, which in previous studies has also been proven to be an effective treatment for joint pain in this patient population."

The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.