A Detailed Description of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use in a Convenience Sample of Cancer Survivors

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) usage is common among cancer survivors, but comprehensive information on their use is limited.

To provide a detailed description of CAM use in cancer survivors before they participated in a multimodal lifestyle intervention.

A cross-sectional study with a convenience sample of 104 cancer survivors (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer), and a subgroup of 46 breast cancer participants, aged ≥18 years. Participants completed online questionnaires on CAM utilization before participating in the intervention. Data were summarized using mean ± standard deviation and median [interquartile range (IQR)] for continuous variables, and frequencies for categorical measures.

The United States, Australia, Canada, Kuwait, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Prevalence of CAM use.

Participants were predominantly women (89%), Non-Hispanic White (79%), and US residents (88%). Median age (IQR) was 56 (50-65) years, and 44% had breast cancer. The majority of the participants (94%) used CAM with modality-specific use as follows: mind-body medicine, 85%; biologically-based approaches, 67%; whole medical systems, 48%; manipulative and body-based techniques, 31%; and energy healing practices, 29%. Eighty participants (77%) used both conventional treatments and CAM. Relaxation techniques were the most common mind-body interventions (78%). Dietary supplements were the main biologically-based approaches used (66%). Acupuncture was the predominant whole medical intervention employed (47%). Chiropractic manipulation was the most utilized manipulative and body-based practice (18%), and Reiki, the major energy medicine (27%). On average, participants reported using 3.1 ± 1.6 types of CAM therapies (range: 1-6). Breast cancer participants had comparable characteristics and CAM usage.

This study provides a comprehensive description of CAM use in cancer survivors before participating in a multimodal lifestyle intervention. The approaches were complementary rather than an alternative to conventional medicine.