In an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Oncology, Johnson et al found that in answering the question of the association of complementary medicine with treatment adherence and survival, that there were some surprising findings which could be relevant to medicine and complementary health. They did a comprehensive search of all cancers diagnosed from the US cancer database during the allocated time of the search and covered over 1.9 million cancer cases, but only shortlisted over 200 cases from these to look into, suggesting that this number may not be entirely representative of all patients choosing complementary therapy. This is often difficult from notes reviews as many times patients seldom tell their doctors of other treatments they are having. However, the study has some important insights.
This is an important question to answer as many patients do choose complementary therapy and sometimes alternative medicine for cancer treatment. Doctors are often unsure what to recommend and complementary therapists are sometimes unsure of what to do as well.
The conclusions of the study suggest that for potentially curable cancers, that the patients who chose complementary therapy had more of a chance to fall out of conventional medical treatment for their cancers and this resulted in a poorer outcome (increased mortality). However, when treatment refusal or delay was corrected for, then there was no change in the survival outcome of the patients who chose complementary therapy.
How and Why is this study important?
For Doctors
This would mean to encourage patients who did choose complementary therapy (as many patients are likely to continue to do so) to do this alongside conventional medical treatment for their cancers. They should stress the importance of working together, and that we know that complementary therapies together with conventional therapies do not make any difference in the survival, so there is no harm done by choosing this option. However, patients should understand that there may be an adverse outcome if they were to choose to delay or abandon conventional medical treatment in terms of survival. However, this paper does not talk about the quality of life, or that of later-diagnosed cancers which often treatment should focus on quality of life rather than prolonging life, but this is an individual discussion with the patient as to their priorities.
For Complementary Therapists
This study suggests that Complementary therapists taking on patients who have cancer should perhaps discuss keeping on with conventional medical therapy and their recommendations suggesting to avoid delays or abandonment to improve survival. This would not be appropriate in every case, but it is important to know that the patient should have this information.
The Integrative Health Convention chooses to bring knowledge like this to Complementary Therapists and Conventional Medicine including Doctors so that we can all make a difference to our patients. Complementary Therapists and Doctors work for the common good of our patients and it is our responsibility to learn as much as we can, integrate knowledge, and thus provide the best care we can for our patients. The Integrative Health Convention provides a stage for this for doctors, therapists, and the public.
The above article is the sole view of the author only based on the Reference below.
Please also look at our Article on Complementary Therapists and the Treatment of Cancer.
Reference
Johnson, S. et al. (2018) Complementary Medicine, Refusal of Conventional Cancer Therapy, and Survival Among Patients With Curable Cancers. JAMA Oncology. DOI:10.1001/jamaoncol.2018.2487
The Integrative Health Convention is holding an event this October Sat 13& Sun 14 2018 at the Park Plaza Victoria in London. Find out more from our Homepage here about Integrating Healthcare and we have a few talks about Chronic Pain, including one by the Countess of Devon and actress AJ Langer-Courtenay.
