Cargando…

Complementary Methods in Cancer Treatment—Cure or Curse?

(1) Background: The prevalence of complementary and alternative methods (CAM) use among oncological patients has been rising constantly over the last few decades and a variety of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods have been developed. Many advertisements promise to relieve side eff...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Michalczyk, Kaja, Pawlik, Jakub, Czekawy, Izabela, Kozłowski, Mateusz, Cymbaluk-Płoska, Aneta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7796472/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33466517
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18010356
_version_ 1783634690394030080
author Michalczyk, Kaja
Pawlik, Jakub
Czekawy, Izabela
Kozłowski, Mateusz
Cymbaluk-Płoska, Aneta
author_facet Michalczyk, Kaja
Pawlik, Jakub
Czekawy, Izabela
Kozłowski, Mateusz
Cymbaluk-Płoska, Aneta
author_sort Michalczyk, Kaja
collection PubMed
description (1) Background: The prevalence of complementary and alternative methods (CAM) use among oncological patients has been rising constantly over the last few decades and a variety of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods have been developed. Many advertisements promise to relieve side effects of chemotherapy or even to cure the disease, thus encouraging patients to use CAM; (2) Methods: The objective of the study was to determine which patients’ characteristics are associated with the use of complementary medicine during cancer treatment, their pattern of use, and if it has any association with its safety profile. This survey-based prospective multicenter study of 316 patients examined the use of complementary medicine among patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment in cancer centers in Poland between 2017 and 2019; (3) Results: The Chi2 analysis showed that patients’ opinion regarding the safety of unconventional methods is related to the use of CAM (p = 0.00147). Moreover, patients’ thinking that alternative medicine can replace traditional therapy was correlated with his/her education (p = 0.01198). Moreover, we performed univariate and multivariate analysis to determine factors associated with CAM use including sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Finally, we conducted survival analysis of patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment with 42 months of follow-up time of our prospective study. Using Kaplan–Meier curves and log-rank analysis, we found no statistical difference in overall survival between the groups that used and did not use any form of CAM (p = 0.211); (4) Conclusions: CAM use is common among patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment and should be considered by medical teams as some agents may interact with chemotherapy drugs and affect their efficacy or cause adverse effects.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7796472
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-77964722021-01-10 Complementary Methods in Cancer Treatment—Cure or Curse? Michalczyk, Kaja Pawlik, Jakub Czekawy, Izabela Kozłowski, Mateusz Cymbaluk-Płoska, Aneta Int J Environ Res Public Health Article (1) Background: The prevalence of complementary and alternative methods (CAM) use among oncological patients has been rising constantly over the last few decades and a variety of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods have been developed. Many advertisements promise to relieve side effects of chemotherapy or even to cure the disease, thus encouraging patients to use CAM; (2) Methods: The objective of the study was to determine which patients’ characteristics are associated with the use of complementary medicine during cancer treatment, their pattern of use, and if it has any association with its safety profile. This survey-based prospective multicenter study of 316 patients examined the use of complementary medicine among patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment in cancer centers in Poland between 2017 and 2019; (3) Results: The Chi2 analysis showed that patients’ opinion regarding the safety of unconventional methods is related to the use of CAM (p = 0.00147). Moreover, patients’ thinking that alternative medicine can replace traditional therapy was correlated with his/her education (p = 0.01198). Moreover, we performed univariate and multivariate analysis to determine factors associated with CAM use including sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Finally, we conducted survival analysis of patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment with 42 months of follow-up time of our prospective study. Using Kaplan–Meier curves and log-rank analysis, we found no statistical difference in overall survival between the groups that used and did not use any form of CAM (p = 0.211); (4) Conclusions: CAM use is common among patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment and should be considered by medical teams as some agents may interact with chemotherapy drugs and affect their efficacy or cause adverse effects. MDPI 2021-01-05 2021-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7796472/ /pubmed/33466517 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18010356 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Michalczyk, Kaja
Pawlik, Jakub
Czekawy, Izabela
Kozłowski, Mateusz
Cymbaluk-Płoska, Aneta
Complementary Methods in Cancer Treatment—Cure or Curse?
title Complementary Methods in Cancer Treatment—Cure or Curse?
title_full Complementary Methods in Cancer Treatment—Cure or Curse?
title_fullStr Complementary Methods in Cancer Treatment—Cure or Curse?
title_full_unstemmed Complementary Methods in Cancer Treatment—Cure or Curse?
title_short Complementary Methods in Cancer Treatment—Cure or Curse?
title_sort complementary methods in cancer treatment—cure or curse?
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7796472/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33466517
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18010356
work_keys_str_mv AT michalczykkaja complementarymethodsincancertreatmentcureorcurse
AT pawlikjakub complementarymethodsincancertreatmentcureorcurse
AT czekawyizabela complementarymethodsincancertreatmentcureorcurse
AT kozłowskimateusz complementarymethodsincancertreatmentcureorcurse
AT cymbalukpłoskaaneta complementarymethodsincancertreatmentcureorcurse