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Completed Not applicable Interventional

Acupressure for Children in Treatment for a Childhood Cancer

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03313193

Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03313193. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.

ClinicalTrials.gov public records Last synced Sep 5, 2026, 7:17 PM EDT

Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.

Official title

Acupressure Intervention to Reduce Treatment-related Symptoms in Children With Cancer or Receiving a Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant

Brief summary

Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.

Background: Despite advances in symptom management, children undergoing cancer treatment or receiving a chemotherapy-based Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant (HSCT) often suffer from moderate to severe symptoms of nausea/vomiting, pain, and fatigue along with psychological distress. Pharmacologic treatments of symptoms can cause side-effects. Patients, parents, and clinicians have expressed interest in including non-pharmacologic approaches to improve symptom management. Acupuncture/acupressure is a promising adjunctive therapy to usual care. More evidence is needed from well-designed trials with larger samples and rigorous designs in order to make definitive recommendations about the routine inclusion of acupressure among pediatric patients being treated for childhood cancer or receiving a HSCT. Design and Methods 100 dyads (one child with one parent/caregiver) will be randomized 1:1 into 2 study arms (50 children in each arm). Arm A participants will be offered usual care and professional acupressure five times weekly (15-20 minute sessions) and a parent/caregiver will be instructed in acupressure delivery for the child as symptoms arise. Arm B participants will receive usual care alone. (At the study end, Arm B parents will be offered acupressure instructions.) Children will be enrolled for \~30 days which can occur with one month of continuous hospital-based treatment or two months of intermittent hospital-based treatment (inpatient or regular outpatient treatment). Parent and child participants will receive a follow-up interview one month after completion of the intervention (Arm A) or the final symptom assessment (Arm B). Significance This is the first study to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of an acupressure intervention to decrease treatment-related symptoms in 100 patients in treatment for a childhood cancer or receiving a chemo-therapy based HSCT.

Study identification

NCT ID
NCT03313193
Recruitment status
Completed
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Not applicable
Enrollment
95 participants

Conditions and interventions

Eligibility (public fields only)

Age range
5 Years to 24 Years
Sex
All
Healthy volunteers
Healthy volunteers not accepted

This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.

Study timeline

Start date
Sep 25, 2017
Primary completion
Sep 30, 2019
Completion
Sep 30, 2019
Last update posted
Oct 10, 2019

2017 – 2019

United States locations

U.S. sites
1
U.S. states
1
U.S. cities
1
Facility City State ZIP Site status
UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center San Francisco California 94115

Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.

About this trial record page

What this page shows
Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03313193, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
What this page does not do
No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
Where the data comes from
Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
Last refresh
Last update posted Oct 10, 2019 · Synced Sep 5, 2026

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Open the official record

The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT03313193 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.

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