Cancer Patients Turn to CAM, More Studies Needed

More than 70 percent of adult cancer patients in western Washington use alternative and complementary medicine (CAM), including massage, and almost all report substantial improvements in well-being as a result of doing so, according to a new survey.

The results of this survey—the first population-based study of its kind to look at predictors, motivators and costs of different types of alternative-medicine use in adults with cancer—were published in the March 29 edition of The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine: Research on Paradigm, Practice and Policy.

Patients were considered users of alternative medicine if they received care from an alternative provider within the past year or had used at least one alternative supplement or therapy. Depending on the type of therapy, 83 percent to 97 percent of patients surveyed said they used alternative medicine for general health and nearly all reported that use of these therapies improved their well-being.

Seventeen percent of the patients received care from an alternative provider such as a naturopathic doctor, spiritual advisor or massage therapist, and 20 percent used some form of mental or energy-based therapy such as biofeedback, hypnotism, guided imagery, or use of crystals, chelation therapy or magnets.

One limitation to the study, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center lead researcher Ruth E. Patterson, Ph.D., R.D., noted, is that use of alternative medicine could be high in western Washington for a variety of reasons. First, vitamin use is highest in the western United States compared to other areas of the nation. Also, health insurers in Washington are required by state law to provide coverage for licensed alternative providers. As such, the results of this survey may not be applicable to cancer patients in other states with less liberal coverage of alternative-health services.

"Regardless of incidence of alternative-medicine use in Washington, other studies also indicate that alternative-medicine use is common in patients with cancer. For this reason, we recommend that longitudinal studies be conducted to investigate associations of alternative-medicine use with survival and quality of life in cancer patients," Patterson said. "Such studies are needed urgently."

— Source: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. To obtain a copy of the paper, "Types of Alternative Medicine Used by Breast, Colon, and Prostate Cancer Patients: Predictors, Motives and Costs" by Patterson et al., The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine: Paradigm, Practice and Policy, Vol. 8, No. 4, 2002, pp. 477-485, visit the journal's Web site at www.liebertpub.com/acm or contact Vicki Cohn at vcohn@liebertpub.com.