1 Charles Darwin University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
2 University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Integr Cancer Ther. 2018 Sep;17(3):568-581. doi: 10.1177/1534735418775821. Epub 2018 May 21.
Cancer 'patients' are increasingly using traditional indigenous and complementary medicines (T&CM) alongside conventional medical treatments to both cure and cope with their cancer diagnoses. To date T&CM use among Indigenous cancer patients from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States has not been systematically reviewed.
We systematically searched bibliographic databases to identify original research published between January 2000 and October 2017 regarding T&CM use by Indigenous cancer patients in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. Data from records meeting eligibility criteria were extracted and appraised for quality by 2 independent reviewers.
Twenty-one journal articles from 18 studies across all 4 countries met our inclusion criteria. T&CM use ranged from 19% to 57.7% (differing across countries). T&CM was mostly used concurrently with conventional cancer treatments to meet their spiritual, emotional, social, and cultural needs; however, bush, traditional, and herbal medicines were used in a minority of cases as an alternative.
Our findings highlight the importance of T&CM use to Indigenous cancer patients across these 4 countries; we identified multiple perceived spiritual, emotional and cultural benefits to its use. The patient's perception of their health professional's attitudes toward T&CM in some cases hindered or encouraged the patient's disclosure. Additional research is required to further explore the use and disclosure of T&CM among Indigenous cancer patients to help inform and ensure effective, safe, coordinated care for Indigenous cancer patients that relies on shared open decision making and communication across patients, communities, and providers.
癌症“患者”越来越多地在常规医疗治疗的基础上使用传统的本土和补充性药物（T&CM），以治疗和应对其癌症诊断。迄今为止，尚未对来自澳大利亚、加拿大、新西兰和美国的土著癌症患者使用 T&CM 的情况进行系统综述。
我们系统地搜索了文献数据库，以确定 2000 年 1 月至 2017 年 10 月期间发表的关于澳大利亚、加拿大、新西兰和美国的土著癌症患者使用 T&CM 的原始研究。由 2 名独立评审员对符合纳入标准的记录进行数据提取和质量评估。
来自 4 个国家的 18 项研究的 21 篇期刊文章符合我们的纳入标准。T&CM 的使用率从 19%到 57.7%不等（各国之间存在差异）。T&CM 主要与常规癌症治疗同时使用，以满足他们的精神、情感、社会和文化需求；然而，在少数情况下，使用了草药、传统和草药药物作为替代方法。
我们的研究结果强调了 T&CM 在这 4 个国家的土著癌症患者中的重要性；我们发现了使用 T&CM 的多种感知的精神、情感和文化益处。在某些情况下，患者对其健康专业人员对 T&CM 的态度的看法阻碍或鼓励了患者的披露。需要开展更多的研究来进一步探索土著癌症患者中 T&CM 的使用和披露情况，以帮助为土著癌症患者提供有效的、安全的、协调的护理，这种护理依赖于患者、社区和提供者之间共享的开放决策和沟通。
