Abstract:Objective To explore the value of auricular point sticking in the treatment of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea induced by SOX (S-1 and oxaliplatin) chemotherapy in the patients with gastric cancer. Methods Totally 110 gastric cancer patients receiving SOX chemotherapy after radical gastrectomy were recruited and equally allocated into experiment group and control group, with 55 cases in each group. The patients in the two groups received auricular point sticking at different acupoints. The shenmen, stomach, sympathetic, subcortex, liver and spleen were selected for the experiment group, while the acupoints in the control group included the eye, lung, kidney, shoulder joint and knee point. Auricular point sticking therapy continued for 21 days in all patients, who pressed the auricular points 3 times a day for at least 3 min each time. American National Cancer Institute-Common Toxicity Criteria (Version 2.0) was applied to evaluate the severity of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Results Ninety-five patients finished the study with 49 in the experiment group and 46 in the control group. There were no significant differences in age, gender, body mass index, smoking history, drinking history, invasion depth, regional lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, tumor stage or tumor maximum diameter between the two groups. The incidence of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea was similar in the two groups. The patients had lower severity and shorter duration of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea in the experiment group versus the control group (all P<0.05). Conclusion Auricular point sticking feasibly decreases the severity and duration of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea of gastric cancer patients receiving SOX chemotherapy.