{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T09:42:11Z","timestamp":1785404531937,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"13","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]],"date-time":"2026-07-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1782864000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003593","name":"Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient\u00edfico e Tecnol\u00f3gico","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003593","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03swz6y49","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100002322","name":"Coordena\u00e7\u00e3o de Aperfei\u00e7oamento de Pessoal de N\u00edvel Superior","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100002322","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/00x0ma614","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004901","name":"Funda\u00e7\u00e3o de Amparo \u00e0 Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004901","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/00nc55f03","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Cancers"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Objective: We aimed to investigate the effects of traditional acupuncture combined with auricular acupressure on quality of life in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma undergoing radiotherapy. Study Design: This is a two-arm, parallel, randomized clinical trial with blinded outcome assessment. The study population comprised 107 patients (55 without intervention and 52 with intervention). Data were collected at Dilson Godinho Hospital in Brazil from March 2017 to June 2018, and all patients provided informed consent and were registered under the UTN U1111-1204-8410\/RBR-10v5gcdk. Patients in the intervention group received traditional and auricular acupressure in weekly sessions during their radiotherapy treatment, and patients in the control group received no acupuncture. In addition, quality-of-life assessment data were collected using the WHOQOL-BREF instrument. Results: Analysis of the scores obtained in the WHOQOL-BREF before and after radiotherapy demonstrated that the use of traditional and auricular acupressure had a positive impact on physical, psychological, social, environmental, and overall quality of life. Conclusions: Our findings suggest benefits and provide a context for patients and physicians to decide if acupuncture is a desirable treatment option. However, further studies are required to understand the therapy\u2019s effectiveness better.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/cancers18132132","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]],"date-time":"2026-07-01T08:19:02Z","timestamp":1782893942000},"page":"2132","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Acupuncture to Improve Quality of Life in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer: A Randomized Clinical Trial"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"given":"Agna Soares da Silva","family":"Menezes","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dentistry, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros (Unimontes), Montes Claros 39401-001, MG, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gabriela Luize Guimar\u00e3es","family":"Sanches","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dentistry, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros (Unimontes), Montes Claros 39401-001, MG, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8222-7131","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cristina Paix\u00e3o","family":"Dur\u00e3es","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dentistry, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros (Unimontes), Montes Claros 39401-001, MG, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8989-7111","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Larissa Lopes","family":"Fonseca","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dentistry, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros (Unimontes), Montes Claros 39401-001, MG, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Stephany Gabrielle Chaves","family":"Santos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dentistry, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros (Unimontes), Montes Claros 39401-001, MG, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Arlen de Paulo Santiago","family":"Filho","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Dilson Godinho Hospital, Montes Claros 39400-292, MG, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marise Fagundes","family":"Silveira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros (Unimontes), Montes Claros 39401-089, MG, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Amanda de Andrade","family":"Costa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dentistry, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros (Unimontes), Montes Claros 39401-001, MG, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gracielle Soares da Silva","family":"Ruas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dentistry, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros (Unimontes), Montes Claros 39401-001, MG, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"S\u00e9rgio Henrique Sousa","family":"Santos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Montes Claros 39404-547, MG, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5754-3397","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marcos Fl\u00e1vio Silveira Vasconcelos","family":"D\u2019Angelo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros (Unimontes), Montes Claros 39401-089, MG, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8715-0030","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alfredo Maur\u00edcio Batista","family":"de Paula","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dentistry, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros (Unimontes), Montes Claros 39401-001, MG, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lucyana Concei\u00e7\u00e3o","family":"Farias","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dentistry, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros (Unimontes), Montes Claros 39401-001, MG, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3162-3206","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andr\u00e9 Luiz Sena","family":"Guimar\u00e3es","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Dentistry, Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros (Unimontes), Montes Claros 39401-001, MG, Brazil"},{"name":"Dilson Godinho Hospital, Montes Claros 39400-292, MG, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Global Burden of Disease Cancer Collaboration (2019). 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