High Prevalence of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use Among Cancer Patients: Implications for Research and Clinical Care

In this issue, Hyodo et al1 report that herbs and other dietary supplements are used by substantial numbers of cancer patients in Japan — 44.6 % of 3,100 patients, as op-posed to 25.5 % of 361 noncancer (benign tumor) patients surveyed. These data are consistent with results from numerous prior surveys on complementary and alterna-tive medicine (CAM) use in oncology. A 1998 systematic review examined 26 surveys of cancer patients from 13 countries and reported an average prevalence of 31%, with rates ranging up to 64%.2 Subsequent studies report even higher prevalence, depending on the definition of CAM used.3,4 Reports of prevalence often are exagger-ated because surveyors include many aspects of life, such as spirituality, attention to diet, and routine self-care, that from our perspective are not complementary thera-