Following Up:
Complementary therapies, quality of life, and cancer care
Decisions affecting quality of life can be some of the hardest to make, especially for patients diagnosed with cancer. Conventional cancer treatments include radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery, augmented with new and ever-improving medical technologies. Thanks to modern medicine, increasing numbers of people now survive with the disease for many years.
But the face of cancer care is changing, and part of the change can be attributed to a steep rise in the use of complementary and alternative medicine (often called CAM). A wide range of CAM therapies is available-from aromatherapy and acupuncture to chiropractic, massage therapy, and reflexology ; from an astonishing variety of special diets to nutritional supplements prescribed by naturopathic doctors and practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine.
So, what motivates cancer patients to choose therapies outside of conventional Western medicine? Until recently, the answer was anecdotal and sketchy at best. In 2003, with support from AHFMR, Dr. Marja Verhoef began to investigate what type of information cancer patients consider important when deciding upon their care.
It turns out that cancer patients are not necessarily inspired by scientific evidence. Those who have used complementary and alternative therapies previously are likely to be less concerned with scientific evidence than in personal experience and testimonials from other people, and are more willing to trust their gut feelings and the results of trial and error. Newly diagnosed patients with little experience of alternative treatments tend to be more interested in scientific evidence and their doctors' advice.
Conventional medicine and science are very much based on measurement and evidence. But Dr. Verhoef's work shows that, more and more, cancer patients seek treatments that fit with their beliefs about causes of cancer, about healing rather than curing, and about mind–body–spirit approaches. They often want integrative cancer care that incorporates conventional as well as complementary and alternative treatments.
"Reality cannot be reduced to numbers alone," stresses Dr. Verhoef. "In order to be responsive to patients' needs, we need to give patients a voice."