Utilization of complementary/alternative services by women with breast cancer

This paper reports on the utilization of complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) services by women with breast cancer. Study participants were women with invasive breast cancer diagnosed 23-36 months prior to contact about the study, and randomly selected from the Ontario Cancer Registry. From among 1,119 eligible women sent survey questionnaires, 731 returned completed questionnaires (65%). A total of 20% of respondents used at least 1 CAM service. Among those who responded to a question about whether they would have liked specific services, 39% reported that there was at least one CAM service they would have liked to use, but were unable to access. Factors shown to be related to greater utilization of services included: younger age, higher household income, employed or student status, private health insurance coverage, and having received chemotherapy. Study results speak to the importance of acknowledging that professionals outside of the formal cancer care system play an important role for many patients. Patients would welcome experimentation with service models in which CAM practitioners and cancer specialists collaborate in providing care.