Acupuncture can play a vital role in helping the growing number of cancer survivors adjust to life after receiving cancer treatments, including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. This includes managing the physical and emotional after-effects of diagnosis and treatment, making healthy lifestyle choices, coping with fear of recurrence, learning how to manage a chronic condition, and establishing the "new normal" that is the legacy of a cancer diagnosis and its treatments.
As a guide for practitioners, it aims to help acupuncturists to:
- Understand the challenges faced by cancer survivors who have completed treatment (surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy)
- Understand the biomedical context of the consequences of cancer treatments
- Relate their patient''s cancer experience to the principles of east Asian medicine
- Treat some specific consequences of cancer treatment
- Work safely with cancer survivors
- Support cancer survivors on an emotional level
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