Chemo induced neuropathy

Submitted by peter_med on Mon, 12/19/2011 - 10:04am

One of my patients is 68 yo lady and had colon cacer removed about five years
ago. After post-surgery chemo, she developed both hand finger tips and bottom of
feet tingling, numbness and sensitive to touch. My chinese Dx are blood
deficiency and phlegm stagnation. I treated her weekly for four weeks and a
little massagge. It seems to not much change. Points I used are Baxie, Bafeng
locally and general points like LI10, LI4, ST36, ST40, LV3, SP9, SP6 etc. I also
gave her herb Du Huo Ji Sheng Wan taken. Any suggestion? Appreciate.

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Comments

Feng Mei's picture
Submitted by Feng Mei on Mon, 12/19/2011 - 2:41pm.

Tingling may internal wind,

Tingling may internal wind, check her blood pressure, if high, she may wind phlegm attack with live and kidney yin deficiency, use points: Ren4, St40, Kd3,6, Sp6, Lv3, Li4, Lv8, Ub17,18, 20, 23, Sp10, Pc6, Gb34, Gb8, Gb20, St36. Herb formula: Ban Xia Bai Zhu Tian Ma Tang.

Chad Dupuis's picture
Submitted by Chad Dupuis on Wed, 12/21/2011 - 8:57am.

We unfortunately see this

We unfortunately see this quite a bit, but generally get very good results.  I usually do something like the following:

General support for someone with cancer/cancer history (weakened immunity, qi and blood, generally) to this you might add some general TCM pattern related points, ST 36 for example:

  • GV 22 - frontal lobe, stress, anxiety, hormonal balances
  • GV 19 - sensory cortex
  • GB 20
  • Huatuo of T1, T2, T3 - bone marrow, thymus and lung/lymph system respectively
  • Huatuo of T7 - any blood issue

For neuropathy in the hands:

  • HT 7, PC 7 and LU 9 (occasionally use baxie but don't find them very effective)
  • PC 4 or PC 5 as appropriate
  • Following treatment deep tuina from huatuo of C6/7 through shoulder and down the inside of the forearm multiple times vigorously, then light massage in the palm and fingers (tuina, I believe, is crucial)

For neuropathy in the feet:

  • Huatuo of L2 (kidneys), L5 (colon) and UB 32
  • UB 40, UB 57, GB 39, UB 60, KD 3, SP 3 (sometimes bafeng, but again I generally don't find them helpful, occasionally KD 1 as well but same caveat).
  • Following treatment deep tuina from huatuo of L2 down through the legs, through the calf muscles multiple times vigoroursly, then light massage in the feet and toes (again tuina is important)

Personally I don't find herbal medicines very helpful (but that is partially my own bias in favoring acupuncture and tuina for cancer generally and neuropathy particularly).. 

Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.
Yin Yang House Acupuncture and Wellness Center

Fjennings's picture
Submitted by Fjennings on Wed, 12/21/2011 - 4:48pm.

Chemo induced neuropathy

I've found moxa useful for this. Just used stick moxa & played it up & down the area concerned.