Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Treatment of Cancer in China: a Review / 日本補完代替医療学会誌

ABSTRACT

Recently, the number of cancer patients using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) hasu been increasing world wide. Many hospitals in China have been using integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine (ITCWM, the use of both western and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) together) for treatment or prevention of cancer, and considerable progress has been made. The present study investigated and systematically reviewed previous randomized controlled trials (RCTs) conducted to verify the effects of ITCWM on cancer in China, from a database of Chinese literature. Papers published in Chinese scientific journals were searched using the database provided by the National Science and Technology Library (NSTL, http//www.nstl.gov.cn), China. On the basis of a limited search strategy, 14 reports of RCTs were identified and reviewed. Almost all of these RCTs reported better results with the use of ITCWM than with western medicine alone. In order to promote evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine (EBCAM) in Japan, it will be necessary to collect and evaluate the scientific content of many clinical studies of CAM performed in China and other countries to establish a database. In the future, there will be a need to develop and establish methods such as meta-analysis for scientific evaluation of CAM.<br>