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Individuals who received complementary therapy for curable cancers were more likely to refuse at least one component of their conventional cancer treatment, and were more likely to die as a result, according to researchers at the Yale Cancer Center and Outcomes Cancer, Public Policy and Center for Research on Efficiency (COPPER) at the Yale School of Medicine. The findings were reported online today in JAMA Oncology .
The use of complementary medicine – medical treatments that fall outside the scope of scientific medicine – is growing in the United States and often used by cancer patients. Although many patients believe that a combination of complementary medicine and conventional cancer treatment will offer the greatest chance of cure, there is little research evaluating the effectiveness of complementary medications. It is also unclear whether patients who use complementary drugs use them to improve their response to conventional medical therapies, or use them instead of the recommended conventional therapies.
"Previous research on why patients use non-medical complementary treatments of cancer patients who use complementary drugs believe that their use will result in improved survival," said the reporter. lead author of the study, James Yu, MD, associate professor of therapeutic radiology at Yale Cancer Center. "We became interested in this after reviewing the literature, and found that there was little evidence to support this belief."
To study the use of complementary medicine and its impact on survival and adherence, researchers studied 1,290 prostate, lung or colorectal cancer patients in the National Cancer Database ( NCDB) – a joint project of the Cancer Commission of the American College of Surgeons and the American Cancer Society. BNDC accounts for approximately 70% of newly diagnosed cancers nationwide. The researchers compared 258 patients who used complementary drugs at 1,032.
The researchers studied de-identified patients diagnosed over a 10-year period, from 2004 to 2013. By collecting the results of patients who received medication In addition to conventional cancer treatments, they found a higher risk of death. Interestingly, they noted that despite receiving conventional treatment for cancer, these patients were more likely to decline other aspects of recommended care such as chemotherapy, surgery, radiation therapy and / or hormone therapy. The researchers concluded that patients who chose to use complementary drugs as cancer treatment were more likely to decline other conventional cancer treatments and, as a result, had a higher risk of death than those who did not use complementary drugs.
The use of medicine is associated with a higher refusal of proven treatments for cancer and an increased risk of death. Said Skyler Johnson, MD, chief of radiation oncology at the Yale School of Medicine. "Unfortunately, there is a lot of confusion about the role of complementary therapies, although they can be used to help patients with symptoms of cancer treatment, they appear to be marketed or considered as effective treatments for the treatment of cancer. Cancer." 19659003] Cary Gross, MD, co-author of the study, called for more research, "Sources of misinformation must be better understood, so that patients are not sold a fake property bill."
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Material Provided by Yale University . Note: Content can be edited by style and duration.
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