Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research and Cooperative Groups: Can It Happen?

Factors Related to Complementary/Alternative Medicine use among Cancer Patients in Central Anatolia

Aims and Background

We aimed to evaluate the prevalence of and factors related to the use of complementary/alternative medicine among cancer patients undergoing or following conventional treatment at the Erciyes University Oncology Hospital in Central Anatolia.

Study Design and Patients

Face-to-face interview and a questionnaire were carried out with cancer patients attending the outpatient clinic of Medical Oncology. Questionnaire items included patients’ demographic data, treatment, use of complementary/alternative medicine and possible related factors. Multivariate analysis was performed to compare the factors related to use of complementary/alternative medicine.

Results

A total of 268 consecutive cancer patients were enrolled in the study. Overall, 43% of the patients were using or had used complementary/alternative medicine. Totally, 90% of the patients using complementary/alternative medicine utilized herbs, and most of the herbs used were stinging nettle. Nearly half of the patients using complementary/alternative medicine (46.1%) were aiming to fight the disease. Among users, nearly half of them regarded the method used as effective and 54 (50.5%) suggested the use of complementary/alternative medicine to other patients. Only 23.1% of the patients discussed the use of complementary/alternative medicine with their physician. In logistic regression analysis, younger age, higher educational status, advanced stage of the disease, longer duration of the disease and current treatment status were significantly associated with the use of complementary/alternative medicine. In our regression model, the predictivity rate of these variables was 72.2% for use of complementary/alternative medicine according to the backward Wald test.

Conclusions

Use of complementary/alternative medicine among cancer patients in our center is modestly high, and the most common method is herbal therapy. Communication between the patient and the physician shouldbe improvedon this subject.

Nurse scientists in cancer cooperative groups

OBJECTIVES

To review the significant advances in cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and symptom management among the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-supported clinical trials cooperative groups, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommendations for restructuring of the national clinical trials infrastructure, and to discuss the contributions nurses have made in national clinical trials.

DATA SOURCE

Published cooperative group manuscripts and NCI data.

CONCLUSION

The NCI-sponsored clinical trials cooperative groups have conducted major evidence-based, practice-changing clinical trials. Despite the advances, challenges in the process of clinical trials have caused the NCI to restructure the clinical trials network to improve efficiencies and decrease time from concept to protocol development to clinical trials completion.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE

Nurse investigators work with the cooperative groups for a number of reasons, including access to a large multisite population of cancer patients, making findings more generalizable. There are also increasing opportunities for areas of research including biomechanistic understanding of symptoms and symptom therapies, survivorship, and cancer care delivery.