To explore the clinical application of acupuncture in the prevention and treatment of cancer-related depression,and provide references for the development of clinical practice guidelines.Methods:Forty-nine ancient medical books were searched manually,and the ancient literature evidence of acupuncture treatment of depression was collected.Databases including China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI),China Biology Medicine disc(CBMdisc),China Science Periodical Database(CSPD),Chinese Citation Database(CCD),PubMed,EMBASE,and Cochrane Library were retrieved by computer to comprehensively collect the modern literature evidence of acupuncture treatment of cancer-related depression.The questionnaire on acupuncture intervention on cancer-related depression was formulated and distributed to collect the experience of modern specialists in the acupuncture intervention of cancer-related depression.The three aspects of evidence were integrated to form the clinically recommended scheme of the prevention and treatment of cancer-related depression by acupuncture.Results:After sorting out the literature,14 items of ancient literature and 137 items of modern literature were retrieved,including 8 Chinese papers and 6 English papers.Fifty-two questionnaires for the clinical specialists were collected.The comprehensive research results from the three aspects found that acupuncture treatment of cancer-related depression commonly used filiform needle acupuncture,electro-acupuncture,moxibustion,auricular acupoint pressing,and other therapies.The commonly-used acupoints were Shenmen,Neiguan,Yintang,Baihui,Hegu,Zusanli,Qihai,Sanyinjiao,Yinlingquan,Taichong,Ganshu,Taixi,Shenshu,and Xinshu.Conclusion:Based on the evidence from the three aspects,the recommended clinical application scheme for the prevention and treatment of cancer-related depression by acupuncture is formed.Filiform needle acupuncture,electro-acupuncture,moxibustion,and auricular acupoint pressing are weakly recommended.Shenmen,Neiguan,Yintang,Baihui,Hegu,Zusan,Qihai,Sanyinjiao,Yinlingquan,Taichong,Ganshu,Taixi,Shenshu,and Xinshu are recommended.