Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in mexican patients with cancer

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ABSTRACT

Background. Cancer is the second cause of deathin Mexico, most cases are detected at advancedstages and the use of chemotherapy is frequent. Atpresent, more than 300 types of complementaryand/or alternative medicine (CAM) treatments areknown that offer different therapeutic objectives.Many patients use this type of treatments.Objective. To determine the characteristics of thepatients that use CAM, to identify the aim of thesetreatments, the source of information and the potentialbenefits obtained by the patient.Patients and methods. A questionnaire was appliedfrom February 20 to March 5, 2004 to non-selectedpatients with cancer in private consultation to determineage, sex, education level, work, use of CAM,type and number of used therapies, potential benefitsand monthly cost. Two groups were formed, Afor users and B for non-users of CAM. Results betweengroups were compared and the mentionedvariables were correlated with the use of alternativemedicine.Results. Group A included 37 patients and group Bincluded 38, with no difference regarding age, educationlevel, work and oncological diagnosis, p >0.05; a significant trend was found as regards thefeminine sex, p = 0.07, neoplasm different frombreast cancer, p = 0.08 and evident association withneoplasm advanced stages, p = 0.02. Most patientsused between 1 and 3 types of therapies, 97.2%. Themost common types of therapies were nutritionaland spiritual, 54% and 48.6%, respectively. Thesource was the patient's family in 56.4% and thephysician in 24.3%. Complementary and alternativetherapy was considered a success in 57.1%; most ofthe users mentioned benefits (78.6%) deemed astranquility (46.4%) or improvement of the physicalcondition (46.4%). The average monthly cost was $345.5 dollars, with a range of $ 13.6 to $ 2,545.5 dollars.Conclusions. The use of complementary and/or alternativetherapy is frequent among young womenwith advanced cancer and high level of education.The family participates in the decision of usingthese methods; most users noticed a benefit in theirgeneral condition and reported tranquility; thesepatients may be prone to higher incidence of depressionand anxiety. The effectiveness and safetyof this type of treatments remain to be determined,as well as the possible interactions with conventionaltherapy