Abstract
Objectives
Chemotherapy-related side effects (CRSE) are among the most distressing events cancer patients face. Some patients seek complementary and alternative medicines (CAM), increasing the risk of undesirable drug- CAM interactions. This study aims to identify the prevalence and type of CAM used for CRSE among cancer patients and patient’s disclosure of CAM use to their prescribers.
Methods
This was a questionnaire-based, cross-sectional study. Data was collected from cancer patients attending to three departments: surgical, medical and gynaecology at a local hospital in Malaysia. Ethical approval was obtained from the Medical Research Ethics Committee, Ministry of Health, Malaysia.
Results
A total of 273 patients were recruited. Prevalence of CAM used for CRSE management was 166 (60.8%). Of the CAM users, 144 (86.7%) were female, 102 (61.4%) were employed and 123 (74.1%) were married. Breast cancer patients were found to be the highest users of CAM (n=76; 45.8%). The top three CAM used by patients in managing CRSE were dietary supplements (n=166; 100%); herbal products (n=154; 92.8%) and traditional Malay therapy (n=147; 88.6%). About 83% (n=137) patients disclosed CAM use to their prescribers. Among these, 58 (42.3%) reported that their doctors encouraged the use, whereas 89 (65.0%) patients claimed their doctors disagreed the use of CAM.
Conclusions
Prescribers still have doubt in combining chemotherapy with CAM, hence patients use CAM discreetly. Increasing the awareness and understanding of CAM use are mandatory to distinguish its possible synergistic or adverse reactions with cancer patients.
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the Malaysian Ministry of Health, the Director of Hospital Sultanah Nur Zahirah, Kuala Terengganu, Head of Medical, Gynaecology, Surgical and Pharmacy Departments and their hardworking staff. We would also forward our gratitude to the Director General of Health Malaysia for his permission to publish this article.
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Research funding: The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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Competing interests: All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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Ethical approval: Ethical approval was obtained from the Medical Research Ethics Committee, Ministry of Health, Malaysia, and Research Ethics Committee (REC) of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). Permission was obtained from the hospital director for data collection. All other aspects to protect patients’ confidentiality were taken into consideration and patients were invited to join the survey voluntarily.
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Availability of data and materials: The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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