Electroacupuncture Therapy in Reducing Chronic Pain in Patients After Breast Cancer Treatment

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: I. Determine the initial efficacy of electroacupuncture (EA) in reducing chronic pain in women following treatment for breast cancer. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. Determine if EA produces greater improvement in physical functional mobility as compared to sham electroacupuncture (SEA) or waitlist control (WLC)s. II. Determine if EA produces greater improvement in overall quality of life (QOL) and symptoms related to fatigue, sleep and mood disturbance compared to SEA or WLC. III. Determine if EA produces lower pain vigilance and awareness as compared to SEA or WLC. IV. Examine the association between baseline expectancy and outcomes. V. Explore associations between response to acupuncture and biologic measures, including 1) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPS) in catechol-O- methyltransferase (COMT) and opioid receptor-mu1 (OPRM1), and 2) autotaxin (ATX)/lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) axis. VI. Explore if EA reduces emotional, financial, and behavioral concerns among patients and caregivers compared to the SEA or WLC. OUTLINE: Patients are randomized to 1 of 3 groups. GROUP I (EA): Patients undergo electroacupuncture therapy over 45 minutes 2-3 times per week over 4 weeks for a total of 10 sessions. GROUP II (SEA): Patients undergo modified electroacupuncture therapy over 45 minutes 2-3 times per week over 4 weeks for a total of 10 sessions. Acupuncture needles are placed in different locations using a different technique than those used for Group I. GROUP III (WLC): Patients receive standard of care without any kind of acupuncture therapy. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up at 4 weeks.