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
. 1998 Aug 15;83(4):777-82.
doi: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0142(19980815)83:4<777::aid-cncr22>3.0.co;2-o.

The prevalence of complementary/alternative medicine in cancer: a systematic review

E Ernst  1 , B R Cassileth
Affiliations

The prevalence of complementary/alternative medicine in cancer: a systematic review

E Ernst et al. Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: Complementary/alternative cancer treatments are believed to be prevalent. However, reliable prevalence rates do not exist. The aim of this review was to summarize the existing data on this topic.

Methods: A series of computerized literature searches was performed to locate all published studies documenting the prevalence of complementary and/or alternative therapy (CAM) use among patients with cancer.

Results: A total of 26 surveys from 13 countries, including 4 studies of pediatric patients, was retrieved. The use of CAM therapies in adult populations ranged from 7-64%. The average prevalence across all adult studies was 31.4%.

Conclusions: This large degree of variability most likely is due to different understandings of "complementary/alternative medicine" on the part of both investigators and patients. It is likely that the results of the current study reflect the primarily adjunctive use of CAM treatments. Future studies should use a standardized protocol to determine the true prevalence of these therapies more closely.

PubMed Disclaimer

Publication types