Conclusion The evidence is limited to suggest moxibustion is an effective supportive cancer care in nausea and vomiting .
Background Moxibustion is a traditional Chinese method that uses the heat generated by burning herbal preparations containing Artemisia vulgaris to stimulate acupuncture points .
Considering moxibustion is closely related to acupuncture , it seems pertinent to evaluate the effectiveness of moxibustion as a treatment of symptoms of cancer .
The objective of this review was to systematic ally assess the effectiveness of moxibustion for supportive cancer care .
The Effectiveness of Moxibustion: An Overview During 10 Years
Moxibustion has been used to treat various types of disease . However , there is still insufficient evidence regarding its effectiveness . This study was performed to summarize and evaluate the effectiveness of moxibustion . A search was performed for all r and omized controlled trials in PubMed between January 1998 and July 2008 with no language restriction . The results yielded 47 trials in which six moxibustion types were applied to 36 diseases ranging from breech presentation to digestive disorders .  Moxibustion was compared to three types of control group : general care , Oriental medical therapies or waiting list . Moxibustion was superior to the control in 14 out of 54 control groups in 46 studies . There were no significant differences among groups in 7 studies , and the outcome direction was not determined in 33 studies . Seven studies were included in a meta- analysis . Moxibustion was more effective than medication in two ulcerative colitis studies ( relative risk ( 95 % CI ) , 2.20 ( 1.37 , 3.52 ) , P = .001 , I 2 = 0 % ) . Overall , our results did not support the effectiveness of moxibustion  in specific diseases due to the limited number and low quality of the studies and inadequate use of controls . In order to provide appropriate evidence regarding the effectiveness of moxibustion , more rigorous clinical trials using appropriate controls are warranted
Conclusion The evidence is limited to suggest moxibustion is an effective supportive cancer care in nausea and vomiting .
Background Moxibustion is a traditional Chinese method that uses the heat generated by burning herbal preparations containing Artemisia vulgaris to stimulate acupuncture points .
Considering moxibustion is closely related to acupuncture , it seems pertinent to evaluate the effectiveness of moxibustion as a treatment of symptoms of cancer .
The objective of this review was to systematic ally assess the effectiveness of moxibustion for supportive cancer care .