Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27705, USA.
J Oncol Pract. 2013 Jan;9(1):34-41. doi: 10.1200/JOP.2012.000634.
Patients with cancer increasingly use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in conjunction with conventional oncology treatments. Previous studies have not investigated postdiagnosis initiation of CAM therapies or independent correlates of use of individual CAM modalities. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and correlates of individual CAM modalities initiated after cancer diagnosis.
A cross-sectional survey was conducted of a random sample of adults with a cancer diagnosis (N = 1,228) seeking care at a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center within a 12-month period.
The majority of patients were female (64.7%), white (86.9%), and married (72.8%).Three-quarters (75.2%) used at least one CAM modality, and 57.6% of those using CAM initiated use after cancer diagnosis. For all CAM therapies combined, women were 1.7 times more likely than men to initiate any CAM therapy after cancer diagnosis. However, when CAM modalities were differentiated by type, men and women were equally likely to initiate all therapies except for psychotherapy and mind-body approaches. Postdiagnosis initiation of every CAM modality, except mind-body therapies, differed by cancer type.
A significant proportion of patients initiated CAM use after diagnosis. However, specific type of CAM initiated varied by demographics and cancer type, suggesting there is not a "typology" of CAM user. Optimal comprehensive cancer treatment, palliation, and survivorship care will require patient and provider education regarding CAM use by modality type; improved provider-patient communication regarding potential benefits, limitations, and risks; and institutional policies to support integrated conventional and CAM treatment.
癌症患者越来越多地将补充和替代医学（CAM）与传统肿瘤学治疗相结合。以前的研究没有调查过癌症诊断后 CAM 治疗的开始或单独使用 CAM 模式的相关因素。本研究的目的是确定癌症诊断后开始使用的各种 CAM 模式的流行率和相关因素。
对在国家癌症研究所指定的综合癌症中心接受治疗的癌症患者（N=1228）进行了横断面调查，这些患者在 12 个月内随机抽样。
大多数患者为女性（64.7%）、白人（86.9%）和已婚（72.8%）。四分之三（75.2%）的患者使用了至少一种 CAM 模式，其中 57.6%的 CAM 使用者在癌症诊断后开始使用。对于所有 CAM 疗法的组合，女性在癌症诊断后开始任何 CAM 疗法的可能性是男性的 1.7 倍。然而，当按类型区分 CAM 模式时，男性和女性开始所有疗法的可能性相同，除了心理疗法和身心方法。除身心疗法外，所有 CAM 模式的诊断后启动情况都因癌症类型而异。
相当一部分患者在诊断后开始使用 CAM。然而，启动的特定类型的 CAM 因人口统计学和癌症类型而异，这表明不存在“CAM 用户类型学”。最佳的综合癌症治疗、缓解和生存护理将需要患者和提供者接受关于按模式类型使用 CAM 的教育；改善提供者-患者之间关于潜在益处、局限性和风险的沟通；以及制定支持常规和 CAM 治疗综合的机构政策。
