Physicians and complementary and alternative medicine cancer therapies in Greece: a survey

To assess the prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) cancer therapies and attitudes toward them in a nonrandom sample of physicians in Greece.

Four hundred and ninety-four (494) physicians from private practices and hospitals in the Athens area were approached to complete a questionnaire on perceived cancer etiology, self-reported knowledge, and attitudes about CAM therapies used by cancer patients. Two hundred and thirty-six (236) (47.8%) questionnaires were returned.

Greek physicians are most familiar with homoeopathy (58.5%), diets (58.1%), antioxidants (vitamin C) (55.9%), and acupuncture (47.9%). Perceived rates of patients using CAM are low. Predominantly, physicians shared concepts of carcinogenesis accepted by conventional biomedicine. Only physicians who considered disorders of cellular metabolism or in the flow of body energy to be relevant believed that homoeopathy could be an adequate CAM therapy.

Greek physicians in our sample displayed little interest in CAM. However, media and Internet coverage may generate a greater demand for these methods in the future in Greece and physicians will thus need to be better informed.