I’m Mandy Brass MSc MBAcC, Lead Acupuncturist at Dimbleby Care, part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. I qualified as a Traditional Chinese Medicine acupuncturist 25 years ago and have been working with palliative care and cancer patients for 15 years.
Mandy Brass, MSc MBAcC
I started the acupuncture service in Dimbleby Cancer Care nine years ago. Dimbleby Cancer Care is a supportive cancer care department within Guy’s Cancer Centre, providing psychological therapies, complementary therapies, a cancer information support and drop-in service and welfare and benefits support. The acupuncture service sits within the complementary therapy team.
I originally started with a pilot group clinic for a few hours once a week. Over the past nine years, with excellent outcomes and positive feedback, the service has become permanent and continues to grow. From February 2026, we will have 3 acupuncturists working over 5 days, and various projects such as a dedicated acupuncture clinic for advanced prostate cancer patients, a qi gong group and staff well-being clinics.
For my MSc research project, I conducted a service evaluation comparing group and individual acupuncture for outcomes and patient experience. My results showed improved outcomes across all clinics, with no difference between group and individual acupuncture. This showed the effectiveness of acupuncture at a low cost and helped secure funding to expand the service. The research was published in Supportive Care in Cancer and can be read here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-025-09226-x
I will be starting a PhD early 2026 and will be conducting a feasibility study exploring acupuncture for cancer patients with multiple long-term conditions. Half of all cancer patients have multiple long-term conditions, and the combination is associated with increased disability, adverse drug events and poorer quality of life. Current research highlights the need for non-pharmacological person-centred approaches focusing on quality of life. Despite acupuncture being a person-centred intervention that manages multiple symptoms simultaneously, there is no known research evaluating acupuncture’s effectiveness for these most complex cancer patients for improved quality of life and symptomatic management.
Mandy and colleagues at the Dimbleby Cancer Cancer
Consulting and treatment rooms at the Dimbleby Cancer Care