Objective: To examine the applications of acupuncture for cancer pain management and the underlying molecular mechanisms.

Materials and Methods: This narrative review was performed by collecting clinical trials, basic research, and reviews on acupuncture for cancer pain treatment. Articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals were included. Manuscripts not written in the English language were excluded. We researched PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases using keywords or combinations of the keywords: “cancer pain” and “acupuncture”. Articles published between 1 January 1989 and 8 August 2022 were selected. We further screened articles from peer-reviewed scientific journals that were written in English. We searched for relevant articles based on the title and abstract of the retrieved scientific outcome. The articles that potentially fit our aim were finally discussed.

Results: An amount of 1318 articles were included in the initial search. After the remotion of 200 manuscripts before the screening and the exclusion of non-pertinent 50 articles, and 30 review papers, as well as letters (n=27), proceeding papers (n=24), and other papers (n=72), 915 articles were selected and discussed in the review. For narrative aims, we divided the discussion into two paragraphs “Acupuncture-induced Analgesic Mechanisms in Cancer Pain” and “Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture in Cancer Pain Treatment”.

Conclusions: Given that cancer pain management requires a multimodal approach that involves a combination of pharmacological approaches with non-pharmacological strategies, acupuncture has interesting potential applications.