In recent years, we have been told that the western medicine has developed the techniques of treatments on cancer, but the truth is that very few practical accomplishments has been made, while death rate from cancer has been steadily increasing. Although acupuncture has been thought to be ineffective in the treatments of cancer, nowadays we find some reports concerning its effectiveness in palliative cares, improvements of quality of life (QOL) and cancer regressions. Thus, this symposium was planned to investigate this theme. There were reports from appointed speakers on the acupuncturists' feelings of swung back and forth between joy and despair when treating patients with cancer, the experiences in treating her parents who died of lung cancer, and the patients who failed or rejected to be treated in western medicine but successfully treated using acupuncture eventually.
A panelist who practices acupuncture treatments in a hospital reported the effectiveness and indications on combined application of acupuncture and standard treatments for the patients in the terminal stage of cancer. He also reported that no correlation had been found between effective rates and duration (frequency) of treatments neither between stages (duration) of disorders and efficacy. Furthermore, if the environment of acupuncture treatment is well organized, he mentioned that acupuncture can produce a good deal of effect even in patients with terminal stage. He also reported that acupuncture will be able to influence on the physiology in autonomic nervous system, leading to the hyperactivity of parasympathetic nerve.
A panelist who practices his acupuncture treatments based on the theory of Professor Abo reported the effectiveness of acupuncture in improving QOL and in prolonging one's life. He showed an actual situation of the patient with scirrhous carcinoma who had prolonged his life for a long period using acupuncture treatment. He also demonstrated that radiotherapy, one of the three major medical treatments for cancer, will deprive the resistance of the patients.
A panelist who advocates salutogenesis demonstrated the possibility of the direct effectiveness of acupuncture treatment on cancer because acupuncture has significant effects in alleviating pains and enhancing the power of restoring human energy in patients with cancer. He mentioned the limitation of the treatments using “a theory of pathogenesis (modern medicine)” and the importance of the treatments using “a theory of salutogenesis (traditional medicine)”, and emphasized the necessity of acupuncture treatments as well as supplemental agents, and the importance of psychological approaches toward the mind of patients.
In this symposium, the efficacy of acupuncture treatments as palliative cares was indicated. Although there are few convincing evidences, the efficacy of acupuncture treatments as one of treatment methods for cancer may be demonstrated. Further integrative researches on the efficacy of acupuncture in patients with cancer are needed.

No abstract available.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Age Factors ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Amino Acid Sequence ; Calreticulin/*genetics ; Child ; DNA/chemistry/genetics/metabolism ; Exons ; Female ; Humans ; Janus Kinase 2/*genetics ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Receptors, Thrombopoietin/genetics ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Sex Factors ; Thrombocythemia, Essential/*diagnosis/genetics ; Young Adult

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Tacrolimus is effective for refractory ulcerative colitis in adults, while data for children is sparse. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of tacrolimus for induction and maintenance therapy in Japanese children with ulcerative colitis.METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the multicenter survey data of 67 patients with ulcerative colitis aged < 17 years treated with tacrolimus between 2000 and 2012. Patients’ characteristics, disease activity, Pediatric Ulcerative Colitis Activity Index (PUCAI) score, initial oral tacrolimus dose, short-term (2-week) and long-term (1-year) outcomes, steroid-sparing effects, and adverse events were evaluated. Clinical remission was defined as a PUCAI score < 10; treatment response was defined as a PUCAI score reduction of ≥ 20 points compared with baseline.RESULTS: Patients included 35 boys and 32 girls (median [interquartile range] at admission: 13 [11–15] years). Thirty-nine patients were steroid-dependent and 26 were steroidrefractory; 20 had severe colitis and 43 had moderate colitis. The initial tacrolimus dose was 0.09 mg/kg/day (range, 0.05–0.12 mg/kg/day). The short-term clinical remission rate was 47.8%, and the clinical response rate was 37.3%. The mean prednisolone dose was reduced from 19.2 mg/day at tacrolimus initiation to 5.7 mg/day at week 8 (P< 0.001). The adverse event rate was 53.7%; 6 patients required discontinuation of tacrolimus therapy.CONCLUSIONS: Tacrolimus was a safe and effective second-line induction therapy for steroid-dependent and steroid-refractory ulcerative colitis in Japanese children.
Adult ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Biological Factors ; Child ; Colectomy ; Colitis ; Colitis, Ulcerative ; Female ; Humans ; Immunologic Factors ; Japan ; Prednisolone ; Remission Induction ; Retrospective Studies ; Tacrolimus ; Ulcer