SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1583522
Effect of acupuncture and moxibustion on the immune function of patients with malignant tumors: a systematic review and Meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Oncology, Guang’anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
- 2Graduate School of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
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Background Acupuncture and moxibustion have been shown to be safe and effective methods for bidirectional immunomodulatory function. Clinical practice and many studies have shown that acupuncture and moxibustion have a certain clinical effect on immune promotion in patients with malignant tumors. Methods Eight electronic databases were searched systematically for articles published through December 31, 2024. Study Selection Randomized controlled trial studies (RCTs) that reported The number of T lymphocytes cells in patients with malignant tumors who received acupuncture and/or moxibustionon treatment were included. For continuous variables, effect estimates were calculated as mean difference (MD); and for dichotomous variables, the risk ratio (RR) was calculated. A funnel plot was used to analyze potential publication bias. Results 33 studies involving 2610 participants were included. Patients who received acupuncture and/or moxibustion treatment had higher CD3 + , CD4 + , CD4 + /CD8 + and natural killer (NK) cell levels, but lower CD8 + levels. At the same time, the anti-tumor treatment effect was better than that of the control group. Conclusions Evidence from this meta-analysis, acupuncture and moxibustion can enhance the immune function and improve the prognosis of malignant tumor patients. Further studies are recommended to support and confirm these findings.
Keywords: Acupuncture, Moxibustion, T lymphocyte cells, Malignant tumors, Meta-analysis
Received: 26 Feb 2025; Accepted: 24 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Sui, Zhang, Fang, Xie, Fang and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ying Zhang, Department of Oncology, Guang’anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China
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