Buckner C A, Lafrenie R M, Dénommée J A, Caswell J M, Want D A
Health Sciences North Research Institute.
Departments of Biology, Biomolecular Sciences, and Psychology, Laurentian University, and.
Curr Oncol. 2018 Aug;25(4):e275-e281. doi: 10.3747/co.25.3884. Epub 2018 Aug 14.
Cancer patients are increasingly seeking out complementary and alternative medicine (cam) and might be reluctant to disclose its use to their oncology treatment team. Often, cam agents are not well studied, and little is known about their potential interactions with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or biologic therapies, and their correlations with outcomes. In the present study, we set out to determine the rate of cam use in patients receiving treatment at a Northern Ontario cancer centre.
Patients reporting for treatment at the Northeast Cancer Centre (necc) in Sudbury, Ontario, were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire to assess cam use. Changes in cam use before, compared with after, diagnosis were also assessed.
Patients in Northern Ontario reported significant cam use both before and after diagnosis. However, as a function of the cam type, cam use was greatly enhanced after cancer diagnosis. For example, the number of patients who reported use of biologic products increased to 51.8% after a cancer diagnosis from 15.6% before a cancer diagnosis. Patients reported much smaller changes in the use of alternative medical systems or spiritual therapy after diagnosis. Vitamin use was reported by 66% of respondents, and the number of different cams used correlated significantly with the reported number of vitamins used.
Use of cam, particularly biologic products, increased significantly after a cancer diagnosis. Further studies are required to examine the effect of cam use on the efficacy and safety of cancer therapies.
癌症患者越来越多地寻求补充和替代医学（CAM），并且可能不愿向其肿瘤治疗团队透露使用情况。通常，CAM制剂的研究并不充分，人们对它们与化疗、放疗或生物疗法的潜在相互作用以及它们与治疗结果的相关性知之甚少。在本研究中，我们着手确定安大略省北部一家癌症中心接受治疗的患者中使用CAM的比例。
在安大略省萨德伯里的东北癌症中心（NECC）接受治疗的患者被要求填写一份匿名问卷，以评估CAM的使用情况。还评估了诊断前后CAM使用情况的变化。
安大略省北部的患者在诊断前后均报告了大量使用CAM的情况。然而，根据CAM类型的不同，癌症诊断后CAM的使用大幅增加。例如，报告使用生物制品的患者人数从癌症诊断前的15.6%增加到癌症诊断后的51.8%。患者报告诊断后在使用替代医疗系统或精神疗法方面的变化要小得多。66%的受访者报告使用了维生素，使用的不同CAM的数量与报告使用的维生素数量显著相关。
癌症诊断后CAM的使用，尤其是生物制品的使用显著增加。需要进一步研究来考察使用CAM对癌症治疗疗效和安全性的影响。
