As a characteristic therapy in traditional Chinese medicine

acupuncture has shown potential advantages in anti-tumor therapy

and one of the therapeutic effects of acupuncture is to improve the immunosuppressive conditions in patients with tumor. Based on the immunoregulatory effect of acupuncture

this article summarized the mechanism of acupuncture in regulating tumor immune status from the following aspects: stimulating the activation of natural killer cells

increasing the number of CD8

+

T cells

and adjusting the balance between T helper 1 cells and T helper 2 cells and between regulatory T cells and T helper 17 cells. With reference to existing evidence

we believe that acupuncture can regulate the body's immunosuppressive conditions through a variety of targets

but further clinical and basic studies are needed to clarify its regulatory effect on tumor immune microenvironment and related mechanism of action.