Use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) methods by cancer patients admitted to oncology polyclinic and evaluation of these methods for life quality

Aim: In the present study, our aim is to assess cancer patients receiving treatment in Outpatient Chemotherapy Unit in terms ofdemographic characteristics and life quality and to investigate the use of CAM methods and the factors affecting the use of suchmethods.Material and Methods: The sample of this descriptive study consists of 100 cancer patients treated in Outpatient ChemotherapyUnit. A questionnaire form was used in the study as a data collection tool. The questionnaire form prepared following the approvalof local ethical committee was applied to the patients admitted to oncology unit for outpatient chemotherapy.Results: 56% of patients were males and 44% of them were females. They were aged minimum 40 and maximum 89. 39% of patientshad breast cancer, 22% of them had colorectal cancer, 20% of them had lung cancer, 15% of them had prostate cancer, %2 of them haduterine (endometrium) cancer, and 2% of them had bladder cancer. 23 out of 100 patients in the sample used alternative treatmentmethods. 20 of them preferred herbal therapy while 3 of them used acupuncture. A great majority of patients resorting to alternativetreatment methods were housewives and had lung, breast or colorectal cancer. It was observed that less patients with urogenitalcancer resorted to CAM methods.Conclusion: As a result of this study, it was detected that 23% of cancer patients used one of the CAM methods, the most commonone being the herbal therapy. Physicians and other healthcare professionals must be knowledgeable about the effects and sideeffects of these treatment methods and must warn the cancer patients about their probable complications. Moreover, an interestingresult is that, in Turkey, cancer patients are not informed on their diagnosis by relatives and healthcare professionals.