NEARLY half of the surveyed cancer patients treated at Palmerston North Hospital outpatient clinics are also using complementary or alternative medicines.

In the first New Zealand research on the subject since 1987, oncology registrar Kathryn Chrystal found 46 percent of outpatients were using such therapies as vitamin C, herbal supplements and hypnotherapy. And nearly half of them didn't tell their doctor about it.

The ongoing survey has won Dr Chrystal the Palmerston North Hospital Medical Trust prize for research by a junior doctor.

Her winning entry was based on 100 responses to the anonymous, voluntary survey.

She hopes to more than double that base in time to present further findings at the New Zealand Oncology conference in the city in April.

Dr Chrystal said the findings were in line with overseas experience.

In the United States, the use of alternative medicines by cancer patients had increased from 33 to 42 percent between 1990 and 1997.

The most common reason for taking alternatives was to improve quality of life, but about 30 percent of patients were hoping they would provide a cure or prevent a recurrence.

Most people surveyed here believed the extra therapies they were using were beneficial and 85 percent believed they were safe.

"The majority of patients felt they had been helpful, so that is a useful effect in its own right," Dr Chrystal said.

And they didn't stop at one. Of those who were using alternatives, more than half of them used a cocktail of four or more and 17 percent used seven or more.

For some, that was adding up to monthly bills of $600.

While 30 percent had used other therapies before, the rest had started using them only after their cancer diagnosis.

Dr Chrystal said doctors generally understood the motivation of cancer patients to do something extra to help them control the course of their illness and treatment.

"They want something to give them extra hope or benefit."

She said some complementary treatments could be useful, such as hypnotherapy, which helped some people cope with the effects of both their illness and their treatment.

"We don't want to tell people not to use other therapies, and we're certainly not going to refuse anyone treatment because of other things they're doing.

"People are perhaps concerned we might disapprove, but that's not necessarily the case.

"We are concerned that a lot of people don't know some therapies can have side effects, or can interact with the chemotherapy or radiotherapy they are receiving."

Dr Chrystal said doctors worried about the quality of information some people based their choices on, and wanted an opportunity to provide them with some balance.

"The most common source of information is friends and family."

Dr Chrystal said some herbal treatments, in particular, should be discussed with a doctor and taken with caution.

"Dietary supplements aren't regulated, and so you can't guarantee exactly what's in them and in what concentration.

"And they can be quite potent medicines.

"A lot of people aren't aware up to 30 percent of our chemotherapy agents come from natural derivatives from plants."

Because the questionnaires were distributed through outpatient clinics, it didn't find any patients who were using other therapies instead of conventional cancer treatment.

"Other studies suggest about 8 percent of patients use alternatives as their sole method."

　　From Healthy.net