Complementary and alternative dietary therapies

Patients with cancer often feel that they can improve their physical condition and prognosis by altering what they eat. Their quest for nutritional information may lead them to alternative and complementary dietary therapies. Although many of thesetherapies appear to be "nontoxic" or "natural" they are often restrictive and place patients at risk for various complications and adverse events. Weitzman (1998) adds that prospective, randomized trials of alternative and complementary dietary therapies are needed, and that these nutritional therapies must be used with great caution by pediatric patients because this population is at high risk for nutritional deficiencies and diet-related complications.