Dr. Senckenberg Chronomedical Institute, J W Goethe University, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
J Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 2013 Mar;139(3):357-65. doi: 10.1007/s00432-012-1336-6. Epub 2012 Oct 26.
About 40-50 % of cancer patients use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Women, and especially those with gynecological cancers, are more active in this field than men. The goal of our study was to estimate the likelihood of CAM use and the likelihood of interactions of CAM with cancer therapy in the setting of a gynecological outpatient clinic at a German Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC).
One hundred consecutive gynecological outdoor patients of the CCC in Frankfurt am Main in Germany were interviewed with a standardized questionnaire on CAM use. An investigation on potential interactions was done by matching a scientific database systematically.
Sixty-nine of the interviewed 100 women received chemotherapy, 23 endocrine therapy and 41 monoclonal antibodies. In total, 64 % used CAM, 48 % used at least one substance-bound CAM. In 17 out of those 48 cases (35 %), interactions were unlikely, whereas they were probable in 14 patients (29 %). Thus, a third of all patients in this study were in danger of interactions. More than half of all CAM users and three quarters of users of substance-bound CAM are at risk of interactions. This number is independent of whether the patient is taking chemotherapy, endocrine therapy or antibodies.
The frequency of CAM use we found is in line with international data from CCCs in the USA. To our knowledge, this is the first study publishing data on the frequency of potential interactions. Thus, an initiative to protect women from the dangers of uncontrolled CAM use is urgently needed. In the discussion, we propose a concept of how to achieve this aim.
大约 40-50%的癌症患者使用补充和替代医学（CAM）。女性，尤其是妇科癌症患者，比男性更活跃于这一领域。我们研究的目的是评估在德国综合性癌症中心（CCC）妇科门诊环境中 CAM 使用的可能性以及与癌症治疗相互作用的可能性。
我们对德国美因河畔法兰克福 CCC 的 100 名连续妇科门诊患者进行了标准化问卷采访，以了解他们对 CAM 的使用情况。通过系统地匹配科学数据库，对潜在的相互作用进行了调查。
接受采访的 100 名女性中有 69 人接受了化疗，23 人接受了内分泌治疗，41 人接受了单克隆抗体治疗。总共有 64%的人使用了 CAM，48%的人使用了至少一种基于物质的 CAM。在这 48 例中，有 17 例（35%）不太可能发生相互作用，而有 14 例（29%）则很可能发生相互作用。因此，在这项研究中，三分之一的患者有发生相互作用的风险。超过一半的 CAM 用户和四分之三的基于物质的 CAM 用户有发生相互作用的风险。这个数字与患者是否接受化疗、内分泌治疗或抗体治疗无关。
我们发现的 CAM 使用频率与美国 CCC 的国际数据相符。据我们所知，这是第一份发表关于潜在相互作用频率的数据的研究。因此，迫切需要采取一项保护女性免受不受控制的 CAM 使用危险的举措。在讨论中，我们提出了实现这一目标的概念。
