[Acupuncture in the treatment of symptoms of oncological diseases in the Western world].

Acupuncture is one of the methods of traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). In Asia, methods of TCM are quite often used in oncological patients in combination with classical medicine. In Europe and North America, the position of the TCM is not so clear. In the last few years, some studies were done which were supposed to verify scientifically the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of some symptoms in oncological patients and adverse effects of oncological treatment. Results of these studies indicate that acupuncture is effective in the treatment of pain, nausea, vomiting and xerostomia. The International Society of Integrative Oncology formulated some recommendations for using methods of TCM in oncological patients. In this field, there is still a lot of possibilities for further studies which could help acupuncture to become an important therapeutic method even in our region.