Ken Phillips, a nursing associate professor, and Greg Hand, an associate professor in the Arnold School of Public Health, are using a grant from the S.C. Cancer Center to measure the effectiveness of acupuncture in alleviating side effects of breast cancer treatment.

“Our goal is to determine if acupuncture will eliminate the unpleasant side effects of nausea, lack of appetite, and dryness of mouth and improve patient adherence in taking medications,” said Phillips, the study's principal investigator.

Phillips and Hand are collaborating with Rosemary Lambert-Falls, a Columbia oncologist, and William Skelton, an acupuncturist at The Acupuncture Clinic in Columbia. Sixty women diagnosed with breast cancer will participate in the study; about half will receive twice weekly acupuncture treatments for five weeks, and half will undergo relaxation therapy.

“We’re interested in psychoneuroimmu-nology, the interaction of mind and body,” Hand said. “We know that physical illness can affect your psychological well being just as our psychological state can affect our physical well being.”

When under stress from chemotherapy, radiation, or infectious disease, the human body releases an increased amount of chemical messengers called cytokines, which induce poor appetite and nausea. Scientists believe acupuncture needles affect the body’s cytokine mechanisms and alleviate the accompanying side effects.

“Acupuncture can certainly complement Western medicine,” Hand said. “It can help reduce the amount of medications needed, or, in this case, reduce the side effects of medications so that the patient’s recovery is improved.”

Phillips and Hand conducted a similar study with HIV-positive patients to determine if acupuncture is effective in reducing levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, and the incidence of mouth ulcers. The acupuncture treatments significantly reduced both the cortisol levels and the number of ulcers in all of the participants.

Hand and Phillips lead the Mind-Body Research Group on campus that includes faculty researchers and graduate students in nursing, public health, and the School of Medicine.