Clinical trial NCT03338543: PENS or TENS for Pain in Liver Cancer
Official title: Percutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation or Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation for Pain in Patients With Liver Cancer
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Pain
Cancer Pain
Liver Neoplasms
Keywords: percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation
transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation
pain
liver cancer
hepatocellular carcinoma
Lead sponsor: Fuda Cancer Hospital, Guangzhou
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2017-11-09
Enrollment: 36
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 70
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: patients with liver cancer pain.
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: This study evaluates the effect of percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (PENS) and transcutaneous nerve stimulation (TENS) for pain relieving in patients with liver cancer. Patients will randomly allocated into PENS group, Tens group and control group.

Detailed description: PENS and TENS have been reported with analgesic effect in patients with pain, including cancer pain, lower back pain, neck pain, stomachache and so on. Effect and mechanism of PENS on pain relieving has been widely researched. With additional electrical stimulation in certain frequency and intensity to conventional acupuncture, pain controlling effect has been largely enhanced. However, invasive operation limits its application and acceptability, especially on pancreatic cancer. TENS is an advanced technique generated from PENS, which is much more welcome for its noninvasive character. Further more, its analgesic effect on cancer pain has been proved by several multi-central, randomized, clinical trials.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Primary liver cancer with pain;
* Haven't underwent neurolytic celiac plexus block in the past 1 month;
* With anticipatory survival of more than 3 months.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Metastatic liver cancer;
* Can not tolerate a flat or side lying or sitting prostrate for 30 min;
* performance score\>3;
* Who has been recruited in other clinical trial for pain relieving;
* Who underwent radiotherapy or local radioactive seeds implantation for pain relieving in the past month;
* Imaging diagnosed with encephalic tumor or metastasis;
* Who with cardiac pacemaker or metal stand;

Primary outcomes:
measure: pain score
timeFrame: day0 to day6
Secondary outcomes:
measure: quantity of analgesic medication
timeFrame: day0 to Day6
measure: times of breakthrough pain (BTP)
timeFrame: day0 to day6
Other outcomes:
measure: complications
timeFrame: day1 to day3
Locations:
city: Guangzhou
country: China
facility: Fuda Cancer Hospital
state: Guangdong
Study officials:
affiliation: Fuda Cancer Hospital
name: Lizhi Niu, Dr.
role: STUDY_CHAIR
References:
citation: Hurlow A, Bennett MI, Robb KA, Johnson MI, Simpson KH, Oxberry SG. Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) for cancer pain in adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012 Mar 14;2012(3):CD006276. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD006276.pub3.
citation: Peng L, Min S, Zejun Z, Wei K, Bennett MI. Spinal cord stimulation for cancer-related pain in adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015 Jun 29;2015(6):CD009389. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD009389.pub3.
citation: Chen H, Liu TY, Kuai L, Zhu J, Wu CJ, Liu LM. Electroacupuncture treatment for pancreatic cancer pain: a randomized controlled trial. Pancreatology. 2013 Nov-Dec;13(6):594-7. doi: 10.1016/j.pan.2013.10.007. Epub 2013 Oct 23.
citation: Paley CA, Johnson MI, Tashani OA, Bagnall AM. Acupuncture for cancer pain in adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015 Oct 15;2015(10):CD007753. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD007753.pub3.