
“I think it’s really important that people keep signing up to these type of trials to push research forward.”
This study looked at what people thought about complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs). Complementary therapies are often used alongside conventional or standard medical treatments. They include acupuncture, massage, reflexology and homeopathy, for example. But alternative therapies are more often used instead of conventional treatments. Both complementary and alternative therapies have often not been tested in large clinical studies, and we may not know if they have any benefit.
Some work has been done on this, but no one really knows what makes people decide whether to use CAMs. The research team running this study wanted to find out more about how people came to their decision. They did this by asking 80 people with cancer about themselves and what they thought about CAMs.
The team also wanted to find out what health care professionals thought about CAMs. So they interviewed 30 health care professionals including doctors, nurses, pharmacists and CAM practitioners.
The aim of this study was to find out more about what people with cancer and health care professionals thought about CAMs. And why some of them used CAMs and some didn’t.
The researchers interviewed 80 people with cancer, 27 men and 53 women. They had different types of cancer and were at different stages of their disease. Their ages ranged from 20 to 87. Of these 80 people
The research team also interviewed 30 health care professionals including doctors, nurses, radiographers, pharmacists and CAM practitioners.
A member of the research team read through the interviews to understand the experiences of these people. Then another member of the research team read through the interviews to challenge and test the findings of their colleague. They then read the interviews a third time to get a final understanding of what the experiences of these people were.
What they found was that
The research team concluded that this study increased the understanding of why people with cancer use CAMs and what they, and health care professionals, thought about CAMs.
We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the study. As far as we are aware, the information they sent us has not been reviewed independently () or published in a medical journal yet. The figures we quote above were provided by the study team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Dr Philip Tovey
Department of Health
If you have questions about the trial please contact our cancer information nurses
Freephone 0808 800 4040
“I think it’s really important that people keep signing up to these type of trials to push research forward.”