The Status of Alternative Treatment in Cancer Patients in Turkey

Abstract

This study was designed to measure the frequency at which Turkish patients with cancer resort to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). A total of 704 patients referred to the Gülhane Military Medical Academy and Ankara Numune Training Hospital between September 2002 and January 2003 were asked about the CAM therapies they used. Of these, 276 patients (39.2%) had used CAM. Gender, marital status, educational status, age, financial status, severity of pain, history of cancer in the family, and their own ideas concerning CAM therapies were found to be correlated with the frequency of resorting to CAM. Resorting to CAM may lead to delayed diagnosis and treatment, adverse drug interactions, treatment withdrawal, and disease progression. Therefore, it is very important to inform patients about these potential dangers. Further studies are needed to clarify the reasons that lead patients to resort to CAM.

Patients in Northwestern Turkey Prefer Herbs as Complementary Medicine after Breast Cancer Diagnosis

“…A considerable percentage (36%) of our patients indicated that they used CAM. Although this figure is in accordance with previous studies [3,5,8,[12][13][14][15][16], it is considerably lower than some large series from the UK and the US [4,6,7,17]. Cultural background and traditional differences may explain this relatively less prevalent use of CAM in northwestern Gulluoglu/Cingi/Cakir/Barlas Turkey.…”

“…There are previous studies from Turkey describing the patterns of CAM use among both adult and pediatric oncology patients [12][13][14][15]. However, those studies used samples that were different to ours.…”

“…There has been no single study reporting breast cancer-specific findings regarding CAM. Overall, the prevalence of CAM use was found to be 36-52% in Turkish patients [12][13][14][15]. We conducted a cross-sectional survey in order to define the prevalence, patterns, and predictors of CAM use in patients with breast cancer at northwestern Turkey.…”

Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use Among Cancer Patients and Determination of Affecting Factors

“…30 It is 35.9% in Europe 8 and ranges between 32.0% and 62.1% in Turkey. 11,26,[31][32][33][34][35][36] We also found a proportion of 38.3% for CAM use, which is similar to that of literature values.…”

Cancer Pain: Knowledge and Experiences from the Perspective of the Patient and their Family Caregivers

“…Işıkhan et al (2005) found that herbal producuts and massages are options often used by cancer patients to relieve pain. It is said that massages enable relaxation for cancer patients by decreasing the perception of the severity of the pain and anxiety (14).…”