Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Sep 11;15(18):4513.
doi: 10.3390/cancers15184513.

The Effects of Complementary Therapies on Patient-Reported Outcomes: An Overview of Recent Systematic Reviews in Oncology

Marit Mentink  1   2 , Daniëlle Verbeek  3 , Janneke Noordman  1 , Anja Timmer-Bonte  4 , Ines von Rosenstiel  5 , Sandra van Dulmen  1   2   6
Affiliations
Review

The Effects of Complementary Therapies on Patient-Reported Outcomes: An Overview of Recent Systematic Reviews in Oncology

Marit Mentink et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

Many patients with cancer make use of complementary medicine alongside conventional medicine, but clinicians in oncology often lack the knowledge to adequately advise patients on the evidence base for complementary therapies. This study aims to provide an overview of recently published systematic reviews that assess the effects of complementary therapies on patient-reported health outcomes in patients with cancer. Systematic reviews, including a meta-analysis of at least two randomized controlled trials, were identified from the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, CINAHL and PsycINFO databases. The methodological quality was assessed with AMSTAR 2. One hundred systematic reviews were included. The results suggest that several complementary therapies can improve health outcomes reported by patients with cancer, such as acupuncture to relieve pain, music interventions to reduce anxiety and yoga to improve cancer-related fatigue. The side effects related to complementary therapy use are generally mild. The results remain inconclusive for some intervention-outcome combinations. Many of the included systematic reviews insufficiently assessed the causes and impact of bias in their interpretation of the results. This overview of systematic reviews can support clinicians in counselling their patients on this topic and provide directions for future research and clinical practice guidelines in the field of complementary medicine.

Keywords: complementary medicine; meta-analysis; oncology; overview of systematic reviews; patient-reported outcomes (PROMS).

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow chart on the identification of the included publications.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Quality assessment of the systematic reviews according to the seven critical domains of AMSTAR 2 [14].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Kemppainen L.M., Kemppainen T.T., Reippainen J.A., Salmenniemi S.T., Vuolanto P.H. Use of complementary and alternative medicine in Europe: Health-related and sociodemographic determinants. Scand. J. Public Health. 2018;46:448–455. doi: 10.1177/1403494817733869. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kim D., Sung S.H., Shin S., Park M. The effect of cancer on traditional, complementary and alternative medicine utilization in Korea: A fixed effect analysis using Korea Health Panel data. BMC Complement. Med. 2022;22:137. doi: 10.1186/s12906-022-03614-0. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Keene M.R., Heslop I.M., Sabesan S.S., Glass B.D. Complementary and alternative medicine use in cancer: A systematic review. Complement. Ther. Clin. Pract. 2019;35:33–47. doi: 10.1016/j.ctcp.2019.01.004. - DOI - PubMed
    1. King N., Balneaves L.G., Levin G.T., Nguyen T., Nation J.G., Card C., Truant T., Carlson L.E. Surveys of cancer patients and cancer health care providers regarding complementary therapy use, communication, and information needs. Integr. Cancer Ther. 2015;14:515–524. doi: 10.1177/1534735415589984. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Uslu-Sahan F., Yesilcınar I., Kurt G., Hancer E., Guvenc G. Effects of COVID-19 fear and anxiety on attitudes towards complementary and alternative medicine use in women with gynecological cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic. J. Integr. Med. 2023;4:377–384. doi: 10.1016/j.joim.2023.06.003. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources