Czakert Judith, Stritter Wiebke, Blakeslee Sarah B, Seifert Georg
Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Department of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology, Integrative Medicine in Pediatric Oncology.
J Integr Complement Med. 2022 May;28(5):377-390. doi: 10.1089/jicm.2021.0368. Epub 2022 Feb 7.
Essential oil (EO) applications via inhalation and/or absorption through the skin-often referred to as aromatherapy-have particular relevance as complementary to cancer treatment and follow-up care. Aromatherapy is of particular interest for controlling symptoms and enhancing the general well-being of people with cancer. This is indicated by the increasing number of empirical studies on this topic. Although numerous reviews have summarized the extensive primary research about aromatherapy and cancer, no review on aromatherapy use targeting women with gynecologic and breast cancers currently exists. Our scoping review aims at giving an overview of the state of research about aromatherapy in this specific target group. By summarizing and describing study characteristics, based on methodological decisions and content, we intend to offer implications for future research, focused on the use of EO in women with gynecologic and breast cancers. A systematic scoping review was conducted, based on the literature, and using the extension of the PRISMA statement for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR). The databases PubMed and CINHAHL were searched in a multi-stage, iterative process taking the most relevant terms under consideration, given our research interest and Boolean operators. The included studies were analyzed and summarized through (1) a table matrix including categories of interest and (2) qualitative content analysis. One hundred seventy studies were examined, and 10 were included in this review. They show high heterogeneity in how the term aromatherapy is defined, in content, research design, EO used, application, and outcomes. However, all 10 studies exclusively targeted women with breast cancer in different states of cancer treatment. Challenges of research within this field point to the heterogeneous use and classification of the term aromatherapy, the differentiation of the principle of action of EO, the lack of transparency in how EO are reported and described (e.g., botanical names, company, dosage, mixing ratios), and the need to include subjective perceptions. Ten implications for future research based on these challenges are given.
通过吸入和/或经皮肤吸收使用精油（EO）——通常称为芳香疗法——作为癌症治疗和后续护理的补充具有特殊意义。芳香疗法对于控制癌症患者的症状和提高其总体幸福感特别有意义。关于这一主题的实证研究数量不断增加就表明了这一点。尽管有许多综述总结了关于芳香疗法与癌症的大量初步研究，但目前尚无针对妇科和乳腺癌女性患者使用芳香疗法的综述。我们的范围综述旨在概述这一特定目标群体中芳香疗法的研究现状。通过基于方法学决策和内容总结及描述研究特征，我们打算为未来研究提供启示，重点是妇科和乳腺癌女性患者使用精油的情况。我们基于文献并使用PRISMA声明的范围综述扩展版（PRISMA-ScR）进行了系统的范围综述。考虑到我们的研究兴趣和布尔运算符，在一个多阶段、迭代的过程中搜索了数据库PubMed和CINHAHL，并使用了最相关的术语。通过（1）一个包括感兴趣类别的表格矩阵和（2）定性内容分析对纳入的研究进行了分析和总结。共审查了170项研究，本综述纳入了10项。这些研究在芳香疗法的定义方式、内容、研究设计、使用的精油、应用和结果方面显示出高度异质性。然而，所有10项研究都专门针对处于不同癌症治疗阶段的乳腺癌女性患者。该领域的研究挑战包括芳香疗法一词的使用和分类异质性、精油作用原理的区分、精油报告和描述方式（如植物名称、公司、剂量、混合比例）缺乏透明度以及需要纳入主观感受。基于这些挑战给出了未来研究的十点启示。
