Survey of complementary and alternative medicine practitioners regarding cancer management and research.

Survey of complementary and alternative medicine practitioners regarding cancer management and research. J Soc Integr Oncol. 2009;7(1):26-34 Authors: Colleen Lee CD, Zia F, Olaku O, Michie J, White JD Abstract The primary purpose of this survey was to assess the interest and concerns of a group of cancer complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners regarding CAM research issues. These issues include the CAM modalities used most often by CAM practitioners in the treatment of cancer patients, cancer CAM practitioners' perceptions of the most promising areas of cancer CAM research, the perceived obstacles to carrying out research objectives in the emerging field of cancer CAM research, the extent of awareness of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Best Case Series Program, and CAM practitioners' level of interest in research collaboration with CAM researchers. A cross-sectional survey of a convenience sample of cancer CAM practitioners was conducted. One hundred thirty-four respondents completed the survey. About 72% of the respondents were involved in the care of cancer patients, and these were considered the informative respondents. All results were from the informative respondent group. Respondent practitioners provided care using interventions from all seven of the predefined CAM categories. This care was provided to improve both quality of life and survival. Over two-thirds of the respondents rated research in pharmac...
Source: Journal of the Society for Integrative Oncology - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: J Soc Integr Oncol Source Type: research