Attitudes of Patients With Breast and Prostate Cancer Toward Complementary Therapies in Finland

Abstract

This study aimed to describe the attitudes of patients with breast cancer and those with prostate cancer toward complementary therapies. The data were collected with a postal questionnaire administered to 216 patients with breast cancer (response rate, 55.4%) and 1 90 patients with prostate cancer (response rate, 54.9%) in southern and southwestern Finland. The questionnaire was composed of 44 Likert-type statements, which were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi2 tests, t tests, and two-way analyses of variance. More than half (54%) of the patients with breast cancer and 45% of the patients with prostate cancer believed that people with cancer may benefit from complementary therapies, although they did not think these therapies actually could cure cancer. More than half of the respondents were dubious about using complementary therapies as long as there was no solid scientific evidence. Most believed that complementary therapies were used because they gave people hope (women, 88%; men, 72%) or "something to cling to" (women, 83%; men, 76%). The respondents believed most in dietary therapies and least in healing. There was much confusion and uncertainty about the professional competencies and expertise of the people who provided complementary therapies. Approximately one fourth of the respondents had spoken to their physician about complementary therapies. Only a few had talked about the matter with nursing staff. About half of the respondents thought that physicians and nurses took a negative attitude toward complementary therapies. In both groups, patients who had talked with their physician about complementary therapies tended to show a more positive attitude.

Palliative In-Patient Cancer Treatment in an Anthroposophic Hospital: II. Quality of Life during and after Stationary Treatment, and Subjective Treatment Benefits*

“…In the last few years, a growing number of investigations into the reasons for this interest have revealed a number of patient needs not met by conventional cancer therapy (CCT) that are not only related to problems of treatment failure and toxicity, but also to basic concepts of our present medical culture. These needs include a less technical or reductionist but instead more holistic and humanistic approach to medical care [5,6], attention to mind-body issues and spirituality [7,8], a more emotionally satisfying, communicative doctor-patient relationship [9], the opportunity to be actively involved in the fight against the disease [10,11], an enhancement of the body's own defenses and immune processes [11][12][13], and psychological well-being and quality of life (QoL) [14,15] -in other words, a treatment strategy encompassing the human being as a whole, with its diversified aspects of body, soul and spirit [16]. Anthroposophic medicine (AM) has created a holistic medical culture along these lines from the beginning and has developed an array of diversified interventions for these purposes [17,18].…”

Uso de medicinas alternativas e complementares por pacientes com câncer: revisão sistemática

“…1,9,24,40,45 In relation to the psychological motivation, the promotion of well-being, control of stress and improvement of life quality were described. 2,5,6,9,14,23,27,46 The technical reasons for the use of CAM in the treatment of cancer are intimately connected to the dissatisfaction with conventional treatment, 1,8,12,36,37 especially concerning side effects and the interaction that is formed with health professionals, 33 besides the autonomous, humanizing process promoted by non-conventional practices.…”

Palliative In-Patient Cancer Treatment in an Anthroposophic Hospital: I. Treatment Patterns and Compliance with Anthroposophic Medicine*

“…Conventional therapeutic procedures are used as well, for AM is not meant to be an alternative to conventional medicine but an extension or a complementation thereof [38,39]. Taken together, these measures theoretically correspond to various patient needs often cited in the literature as reasons for the use of CAM [7][8][9][10][11][41][42][43]: inclusion of body, soul and spirit, support of organ functions, enhancement of immune processes and balancing of treatment side effects, active involvement of the patient, but also continuation of necessary conventional treatments.…”

“…However, contrary to initial concerns [5,6], conventional therapy is usually not abandoned by such patients. The majority use CAM to complement conventional treatment [4,[7][8][9][10], often with the intention to alleviate side effects [9,11]. The increased public interest has elicited corresponding research activities into the prevalence and reasons for the use of CAM in cancer treatment [1,4,11].…”