Non-traditional therapies used by cancer patients

The following is an abstract taken from the Medical Journal of Australia of a study into the use of non-traditional therapies by cancer patients.

Recent studies have confirmed the popularity of non-traditional therapies among Australian cancer patients: 22% to 52% of medical oncology patients, 40% of those being treated palliatively and 46% of children with cancer report using at least one non-traditional therapy. Many of the most popular non-traditional therapies are psychosocial (eg, relaxation, meditation and visual imagery) and are unlikely to pose threats to patients’ health. However, other popular therapies include dietary therapies, antioxidants, high dose vitamins and herbal therapies, many of which are poorly evaluated and could pose physical threats to patients, either directly, or by interfering with traditional therapies.

Despite the lack of scientific evidence, 25% to 73% of patients using non-traditional therapies expect them to cure their cancer or to prolong their lives, and 74% to 86% expect them to assist their traditional therapies. Despite fairly high reported levels of satisfaction and perceived benefit with non-traditional therapies, 17% of patients in one study reported negative side effects, 10% to 36% of patients reported no perceived benefit or feeling worse, and around 20% reported they would not take the therapy again or recommend it to other patients. Even if not harmful, many non-traditional therapies are expensive, and only 64% of patients felt the non-traditional therapies provided value for money.

Recent guidelines highlight the need for oncologists to be aware of non-traditional therapies being used or considered by their patients, and to encourage patients to discuss them. This would require oncologists having at least a basic understanding of these therapies. We were able to identify only two relevant studies in this area — a quantitative survey of 106 Italian oncologists and a qualitative study of 18 Canadian oncologists. They found limited knowledge about non-traditional therapies, relatively positive attitudes towards psychological therapies, more negative attitudes towards more invasive therapies, negative attitudes towards non-traditional therapy practitioners and more positive attitudes towards the use of non-traditional therapies by palliative patients.

As there is a lack of data in this field, we explored Australian medical and radiation oncologists’ knowledge of and attitudes to non-traditional therapies, and their perceptions of the frequency with which their patients used them. Given the increased tolerance among overseas oncologists of palliative patients using non-traditional therapies,7 we assessed attitudes to palliative and curative patients separately.

Note: The term ‘non-traditional therapies’ has been used to describe all therapies other than surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormone therapy.
(Source: eMJA)