Herbal administration and interaction of cancer treatment

Abstract

The widespread impact of cancer worldwide and noncurative treatment methods despite all developments drive patients towards investigating and using nonconventional treatment methods. Herbs, which have an important role in complementary and alternative medicine practices, may cause unfavorable results when used especially with chemotherapeutics in cancer patients due to the substances they contain and due to the properties of some, which still cannot be clarified. Further overshadowing the success of the treatments, patients do not talk about these issues with their doctors and physicians are unable to comprehend these properties of herbs. In this compilation we aimed to clarify the concepts of complementary and alternative medicine, to gather the properties of important and frequently used herbs, and to increase the awareness of physicians on this subject.