Use and perceptions of complementary and alternative medicine in a community cancer center.
e19646 Background: Studies over the past 10 years in the general population showed use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to no more than 42% with the largest study reporting only 28% use in adults. In the cancer population one of the largest studies showed that 83.3% had used at least one CAM approach. After excluding spiritual practices and psychotherapy, 95.8% of participants were aware of CAM and 68.7% of those had used CAM. However most of this information has been obtained in academic medical centers that would be biased since the use of CAM has also been reported to vary by location, education and socio-economic status. Methods: We evaluated with a questionnaire similar to the one use by Richardson et al, in 2000 looking for prevalence and predictors of CAM use in a south Florida community cancer center with a culturally diverse patient population, many of Hispanic descent, we also evaluated the opinion about participating in CAM clinical trials.150 consecutive patients coming to the cancer center were given a questionnaire of which 112 are evaluable at the time of this report. Results: Average age was 66 years, 50 % of the patients were males, 56% of the patients were actively on chemotherapy, 10% on hormonal manipulations and 33% were not actively on treatment. 52% had heard of the term CAM, 34 % had heard the term integrative medicine, 18% had use CAM for their cancer treatment. Only 27% of the patients had discussed the use or interest in use of CAM with one of the health care providers. 59% expressed interest in participating in CAM clinical trials. Regarding specific therapies that the patients had used to “treat cancer” 8% had used dietary interventions, 15% had used movement therapies (TaiChi, yoga, etc.), 12% use of mind-body practices, 25% had used herbal and vitamin supplements and 25 % had used spiritual practices. Conclusions: Our study population had slightly lower use of CAM than in academic centers however the type of practices used appears to be different with increased use of mind/body and movement techniques over spiritual practices which might be a cultural effect. We also found a strong interest and will to participate in clinical trials that should be a window of opportunity to test these therapies in community settings.