Prevalence of complementary medicine use in a phase 1 clinical trials program

Abstract

BACKGROUND: A key end point of early cancer clinical trials is the assessment of toxicities and their possible association with new experimental drugs. Therefore, the concurrent use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in patients with advanced malignancies seen in a dedicated phase 1 clinic was evaluated. METHODS: An investigator‐designed survey was anonymously completed by patients seen in the phase 1 clinic. Pharmacologic CAM included any oral, topical, or intravenous agent, including vitamins, dietary supplements, and herbal products. Nonpharmacologic CAM included prayer, meditation, hypnosis, massage, and acupuncture. RESULTS: Of the 404 patients approached about completing the CAM survey, 394 (98%) agreed to respond, and 309 (78%) surveys were returned. Of those 309 patients, 162 (52%) used 1 or more CAM. Of the 162 CAM users, 77% utilized pharmacologic CAM, 71% used nonpharmacologic CAM, and 48% used both modalities. The most frequent CAM used were vitamins (70%), prayer (57%), and herbal products (26%). CAM utilization was not significantly associated with race, age, level of education, employment, or income level but was used more by women than men (P < .01). There was no statistically significant association between the use of CAM and quality of life as perceived by patients. Of the CAM users, 43% of patients had been using CAM for >5 years. Only 5% reported having side effects from using CAM, whereas 23% did not fully disclose their CAM use to their physicians. CONCLUSIONS: CAM usage is common in patients with advanced malignancies seen in a phase 1 clinic. Cancer 2011. © 2011 American Cancer Society.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine: A Clinical Study in 1,016 Hematology/Oncology Patients

“…Therefore, it was necessary to use a nonanonymous questionnaire to be able to perform a review of the corresponding chart. In contrast to higher rates in the literature with about 30-60% of the oncology patients using CAM [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] , we found CAM use only in 30% (271/904) of the patient sample. This may be partly due to our restrictive CAM definition excluding other CAM methods such as mind-body interventions (e.g., breathing techniques, meditation, relaxation, yoga, tai chi, qigong, cognitive-behavioral therapies, autogenic training, hypnosis, or biofeedback) and alternative medical systems (including acupuncture, moxibustion, and acupressure), but may also be a limitation of our survey, if patients do not fully disclose their CAM therapies in a nonanonymous questionnaire.…”

Online Survey of Cancer Patients on Complementary and Alternative Medicine

“…Whereas in the literature disclosure to a physician is normally low [14,15,16,17,18], nearly two thirds of the participants in our survey said they had informed a physician. General practitioners were more often informed than specialists and oncologists.…”

“…Family members and friends as well as the mass media are the most frequently chosen sources of information about CAM. Research has shown that the majority of patients do not discuss their CAM use with their oncologist [14,15,16,17,18]. The most prominent problem of these sources of information is their low or unknown quality concerning evidence and reliability [19,20,21].…”

Traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine: Focusing on research into traditional Tibetan medicine in China

“…A meta-analysis indicated an increase in TCAM use for patients with cancer from an estimated 25% in the 1970s and 1980s to more than 32% in the 1990s and to 49% after 2000 (6). Data from recent studies have indicated that the rate of TCAM use is 77% or even higher (7)(8)(9).…”