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The pain and depression symptoms that sometimes occur following cancer surgery can be eased by a combination of acupuncture and massage, according to new research.

A study conducted by the University of California San Francisco found that two days of acupuncture and massage, in addition to standard post-operative care, led to a steeper decline for patients with pain symptoms over three days of measurement, as compared to those who received standard post-op care alone.

“We can say that adding acupuncture and massage definitely helped,” said Wolf E. Mehling, M.D., assistant professor of family and community medicine at UCSF.

Mehling cautioned that more research would be needed to convince health plans and hospital administrators that adding massage and acupuncture to standard post-operative treatment for cancer surgery patients are worth the cost.

Source: Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, March 2007