Voice of cancer patients (VoCP): Use and experience of acupuncture in cancer patients.

e22216Background: Acupuncture, an ancient medical treatment originating in China, is gaining momentum and acceptance as a valid form of complimentary therapy in treating symptoms related to cancer treatment. Specific use of acupuncture by cancer patients is estimated to range between 1.7% and 31%. In this study we analyzed patients’ experiences and acupuncture use in cancer patients. Methods: Many patients share their experiences as freely shared messages in online forums. We collected 15.7 million messages million unique messages from 37 unrestricted cancer forums that provide clinically relevant information. We built custom ontologies for various cancers, acupuncture, and cancer related side effects such as pain, insomnia, neuropathy, fatigue, shortness of breath and depression. We then used out automated system VoCP) that uses techniques from Big Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (e.g., deep learning, topic modeling, information retrieval, and natural language processing) to extract relevant inf...