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Cancer-related fatigue is a common and debilitating symptom among lung cancer patients that significantly reduces quality of life. Traditional Chinese medicine offers a range of non-pharmacological approaches to address this symptom, but it has been unclear which therapy works best. This systematic review and network meta-analysis pooled data from 32 randomised controlled trials to compare eight traditional Chinese medicine-based non-pharmacological therapies for managing cancer-related fatigue in lung cancer patients.
The network meta-analysis found that moxibustion and auricular acupressure were both significantly more effective than usual care in reducing cancer-related fatigue. Moxibustion produced the largest effect and also demonstrated a statistically significant advantage over qigong. Auricular acupressure similarly outperformed usual care, though the confidence interval was wide. Other therapies examined — including qigong — did not demonstrate the same level of benefit relative to standard care.
The authors caution that the included studies carried a considerable risk of bias, which limits confidence in these findings. The evidence, while encouraging, is not yet robust enough to draw firm clinical conclusions. The researchers call for more rigorously designed, high-quality clinical trials to validate these results before definitive recommendations can be made.
Conclusion: Moxibustion and auricular acupressure appear to be the most promising traditional Chinese medicine-based non-pharmacological therapies for alleviating cancer-related fatigue in lung cancer patients, though the high risk of bias across included studies means further high-quality research is needed.
Source: Song Y, Zhou X, Luo Y and colleagues. Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (2026). View on PubMed (PMID 42758224) · doi:10.1007/s00520-026-11208-6