Influence of buccal acupuncture on analgesic effect, immune indicators, and expression of Survivin and Livin proteins in patients with advanced-stage primary liver cancer

Objective To investigate the effects of buccal acupuncture on analgesia, immune indicators, and expression levels of Survivin and Livin proteins in patients with advanced-stage primary liver cancer. Methods Eighty patients with advanced-stage primary liver cancer were selected and divided into control and treatment groups according to the difference in treatment modalities, with 40 patients in each group. The control group received transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE), and the treatment group received buccal acupuncture in addition to TACE. The recent efficacy, analgesic effect, liver function, serum tumor markers, Survivin and Livin protein expression levels in liver cancer tissue, and immune indexes were analyzed and compared between the two groups. Results The objective response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) of the treatment group were 37.5% and 77.5%, respectively, which were significantly higher than those of the control group (22.5% and 52.5%), and the recent efficacy of the treatment group was significantly better than that of the control group (P<0.05). The onset of analgesia in the treatment group was significantly faster than that in the control group (P<0.05), the duration of analgesia was significantly longer than that in the control group (P<0.05), and the numeric rating scale (NRS) score of pain after treatment was significantly lower than that in the control group (P<0.05). In the treatment group, the aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and albumin/globulin (A/G) were significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.05), and the serum levels of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), alpha-L-fucosidase (AFU), and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) were significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.05), and the expression levels of Survivin and Livin in liver cancer tissue were significantly lower than those in the control group (P<0.05); CD4(+) and CD4(+)/CD8(+) in the treatment group were significantly higher than those in the control group, and CD8(+) was significantly lower than that in the control group after treatment (P<0.05). Conclusion Buccal acupuncture can reduce the degree of pain and liver function damage in patients with advanced-stage primary liver cancer and lower the serum tumor marker levels, and its mechanism of action may be related to the down-regulation of Survivin and Livin protein expression levels in liver cancer tissue and the regulation of the immune function.