Use of complementary and alternative medicine by Brazilian oncologists

Abstract

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is frequently employed by patients with cancer. An extensive survey was conducted among Brazilian cancer physicians to understand their attitude towards CAM. A questionnaire was sent to all 655 members of the Brazilian Cancer Society asking what is their opinion regarding CAM and if they would prescribe any CAM modality for their patients. They were also questioned regarding their degree of awareness of CAM self-administration by their patients. Overall, 119 questionnaires were returned to us (18%). Most oncologists knew at least one type of CAM (96.6%) and 76.7% had previously made use of at least one type of CAM for themselves. We observed that 76 (63.8%) of the oncologists used to ask their patients about CAM utilization and 37.8% described at least one reason to stimulate its use (68.8% as complementary treatment). Only 10% of the oncologists would prescribe at least one type of CAM and this attitude correlated significantly with previous physicians' use of CAM and with being a clinical oncologist as well as with having questioned patients about CAM use. Most oncologists (80.7%) would not indicate the use of CAM, mainly for lack of scientific proof of its efficacy (56.2%). Physicians knew many kinds of CAM and had frequently used some of them themselves, but only a minority of Brazilian oncologists would indicate them. As CAM use is very prevalent in our population, we believe that most of its utilization depends, probably, on patient's own and independent initiatives. However, these results should be viewed with caution because of the low response rate we observed in this study.

Discrepant Views of Korean Medical Oncologists and Cancer Patients on Complementary and Alternative Medicine

“…In this study, we found that most Korean medical oncologists think CAM is not useful and is ineffective. This finding is consistent with studies from other countries (13)(14)(15)(16)(17). However, the positive response rate of a perceived benefit was quite low as compared to a similar study that was performed by American oncologists.…”

“…Studies about discrepant views of CAM use between cancer patients and oncology professionals have been performed in Japan, Norway, Brazil and the U.S.A (13)(14)(15)(16)(17). All of these studies showed that oncology professionals in the different countries had negative perceptions of CAM use due to a lack of scientific proof about its efficacy and concerns about drug interactions with the anticancer treatments.…”

Futile medication use in terminally ill cancer patients

“…Other potential reasons include lack of medication reconciliation, patient requests, lack of medical knowledge, the reasonably good safety profile of drugs such as statins [21], physician and patient belief in the potential benefits and lack of harm of the futile drugs, and recommendations from other medical specialists. With respect to multivitamins, doctors may feel that such compounds would neither help nor harm their patients; patients, in contrast, often have faith in the benefits of alternative medicines [24,25]. These issues underline the need for improvement in communication both between physicians and patients [26] and among health care professionals.…”

Opinions of University Hospital Physicians on Complementary and Alternative Medicine

“…4 4--E En ne er rg gy y t th he er ra ap pi ie es s such as qiqong, reiki, therapeutic touch, and electromagnetic therapy. 4,5 Studies conducted in Europe and the US have shown that a large proportion of the population use any nonconventional modalities to treat a broad spectrum of health problems, ranging from subjective to life threatening. 3,6 In Turkey, several national studies suggest that the prevalence of CAM ranges from 37% to 76%.…”