Association between complementary and alternative medicine use and prolonged time to conventional treatment among Thai cancer patients in a tertiary-care hospital

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to investigate the patterns of complementary and alternative medicine use and its association with time to conventional treatment. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study design was designed. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: The study was performed at the Chonburi Cancer Hospital, with chart reviews and interviews performed for 426 patients with various cancers between May and December 2018. RESULTS: The results indicated that 192 of the 426 patients (45.1%) reported using complementary and alternative medicines; herbal products were the most common type. Approximately 34.3% of these medicines involved unlabeled herbal products with unidentifiable components. The rates of complementary and alternative medicine use were significantly elevated for men and patients with stage IV cancer. The multivariable linear regression analysis of the relationship between factors and the time until conventional treatment was received revealed that the regression coefficient of the use of complementary and alternative medicine was 56.3 (95% confidence interval [27.9–84.6]). This coefficient reflected an additional 56.3 days of time until conventional treatment, relative to patients who did not use complementary and alternative medicine. CONCLUSIONS: The present study revealed that complementary and alternative medicine use was fairly common among Thai patients with cancer and was associated with a prolonged time to receiving conventional treatment.