Complementary therapy and cancer: decision making by patients and their physicians setting a research agenda.

An invitational meeting, entitled Complementary and Alternative Therapy: Decision Making by Cancer Patients and Their Physicians, brought together Canadian health care providers and researchers who had expertise in patient-physician communication with those who were knowledgeable about complementary therapy and cancer. The aim was to build on the existing knowledge base in both fields in order to determine the unanswered questions, the most important questions, and what methods can be applied for answering these questions. The interdisciplinary group employed a step-wise collaborative process to develop a suggested research agenda regarding decision making by physicians and their cancer patients regarding complementary therapy. The four themes identified are establishment of a registry for complementary therapy usage for cancer care; communication; outcomes measurement; and models of integration. It is hoped that these themes will be considered worthy of support by funding agencies and worthy of investigation by researchers.