Palliative in-patient cancer treatment in an anthroposophic hospital: II. Quality of life during and after stationary treatment, and subjective treatment benefits.

Background: There is an increasing demand for comprehensive forms of palliative cancer care, meeting physical as well as emotional, cognitive, spiritual and social needs. Therapy programs of anthroposophic hospitals are aimed at improving health and quality of life (QoL) at these levels. However, data on the influence of these programs on QoL of patients with advanced cancer are scarce.

Palliative in-patient cancer treatment in an anthroposophic hospital: I. Treatment patterns and compliance with anthroposophic medicine.

Background: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and most of all anthroposophic medicine (AM) are important features of cancer treatment in Switzerland. While the number of epidemiological investigations into the use of such therapies is increasing, there is a distinct lack of reports regarding the combination of conventional and CAM methods.

Patients And Methods: 144 in-patients with advanced epithelial cancers were enrolled in a prospective quality-of-life (QoL) study at the Lukas Klinik (LK), Arlesheim, Switzerland.

Socio-demographic and medical characteristics of advanced cancer patients using conventional or complementary medicine.

Background: To provide prospective comparative data describing the profiles of two patient populations attending conventional or complementary medicine institutions.

Patients And Methods: A registration study was set up in an oncology ward at the Institute for Medical Oncology (IMO) of the University Hospital in Bern, and at the Lukas Clinic (LC) for Anthroposophical Cancer Treatment in Arlesheim, Switzerland. The same eligibility criteria were applied to enrol into the study all newly referred or newly diagnosed patients with advanced cancer over a 2-year period.

Attitudes and Beliefs towards Disease and Treatment in Patients with Advanced Cancer Using Anthroposophical Medicine.

BACKGROUND: In Switzerland, anthroposophical medicine has a long tradition, offers a special tumor treatment, is frequently used by cancer patients, and has been approved in 1998 by the Swiss government to be reimbursed by health insurances. This popularity contrasts with the fact that to date no sound evidence of the effectiveness of anthroposophical cancer treatments exists. In this study we draw a profile on a population of patients with advanced disease attending treatment at the anthroposophical Lukas Clinic (LC) regarding patients' attitudes, experiences and expectations.

Experiences in the realisation of a research project on anthroposophical medicine in patients with advanced cancer.

Questions Under Study: To date most of the published studies on the effectiveness of complementary therapies in cancer patients have yielded controversial results because of questionable methodology. Research strategies and methodologies acceptable to both conventional and unconventional medicine are difficult to find due to different belief systems. In this publication we describe the development and implementation of a project conducted as part of National Research Programme 34 (NFP 34).