Acupuncture in palliative care for management of sequelae of head and neck cancer treatment: Scoping review

Head and neck cancer can affect the mouth, oropharynx, nasopharynx, and salivary glands. The main therapeutic options are surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, alone or in combination and acupuncture. Objective: This study aimed to assess the scientific literature on the use of acupuncture in palliative care for the management of sequelae of head and neck cancer treatment. Methods: To this end, we searched the PubMed/MEDLINE, Virtual Health Library (VHL)/LILACS, Web of Science, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), and Google Scholar, and OpenGrey gray literature databases using the terms “head and neck cancer” and “acupuncture.” These searches retrieved 453 articles. Results: Articles were selected using the Rayyan platform and 407 were excluded (148 duplicates and 259 outside the scope). After reading the full text of the remaining 46 articles, 17 were included in this review. Conclusion: The main treatment-related sequelae reported in the studies were xerostomia, dysphagia, pain, and indigestion.