Brigden M L
Island Division, Metro-McNair Clinical Laboratories, Victoria, BC, Canada.
West J Med. 1995 Nov;163(5):463-9.
More than half of all cancer patients use some form of alternative treatment during the course of their illness. Alternative therapies are often started early in patients' illness, and their use is frequently not acknowledged to health care professionals. Some alternative therapies are harmful, and their promoters may be fraudulent. Persons who try alternative cancer therapies may not be poorly educated but may ultimately abandon conventional treatment. Recent attention has focused on aspects of questionable therapies that make these treatments attractive to patients and that may be perceived as being deficient in the practice of conventional health care professionals. Physicians with patients with cancer should always make sure that unproven therapies are discussed early in the therapeutic relationship. They should also attempt to be aware of alternative therapies that are in vogue in their particular geographic area.
超过一半的癌症患者在患病过程中会使用某种形式的替代疗法。替代疗法通常在患者患病早期就开始使用，而且患者往往不会告知医护人员自己使用了这些疗法。一些替代疗法是有害的，其推广者可能存在欺诈行为。尝试替代癌症疗法的人不一定文化程度低，但最终可能会放弃传统治疗。最近，人们关注的焦点在于一些有问题的疗法，这些疗法对患者具有吸引力，而且可能被认为是传统医护人员在实践中有所欠缺的方面。患有癌症的患者的医生应始终确保在治疗关系早期就讨论未经证实的疗法。他们还应尝试了解其所在特定地理区域流行的替代疗法。
