Ting Bao, MD

Dr. Bao has designed a clinical trial that will randomly assign patients to receive eight weekly real or fake acupuncture treatments to determine if acupuncture can reduce musculoskeletal symptoms caused by aromatase inhibitors (AIs), an integral part of hormonal therapy for postmenopausal women with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer. Her study has the potential to identify an effective non-pharmacological treatment for AI- associated joint and muscle discomfort and allow breast cancer patients to tolerate the full recommended course of adjuvant AI treatment.

Mid-year Progress Report:
To date, 12 women completed the 8-week acupuncture treatment portion and 5 completed the study and were unblended. Dr. Bao plans to advertise the study with local oncologists to increase accrual within the next few months. No results or conclusions are available to report at this point. Depending on results and other work, the reseachers will decide to do either a definitive phase III study or additional study to identify the optimal frequency and duration of the acupuncture treatment, or additional study to explore the mechanism of acupuncture and aromatase inhibitor induced musculoskeletal symptoms.

Bio:
Dr. Bao completed her medical school training at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where she received her MD in 2003. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, MD in 2006. During her residency, Dr. Bao received formal training in acupuncture at Helm Medical Acupuncture Institute affiliated with UCLA and was subsequently licensed to practice acupuncture in Maryland. Right after residency, she enrolled in Medical Oncology Fellowship at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center when she developed interest in translational breast cancer research and acupuncture research.

Dr. Bao's long-term research goal is to integrate complementary and alternative medicine into oncology practice in order to improve the patients' quality of life, and to prevent and eradicate breast cancer. She is conducting a randomized controlled clinical trial assessing the effect of acupuncture in alleviating musculoskeletal symptoms caused by aromatase inhibitors. Her work is to be supported by the American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award.