Surviving, relieving, repairing, and boosting up: reasons for using complementary/alternative medicine among patients with advanced cancer: a thematic analysis.

Background: Patients with advanced cancer commonly use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), however, little research has been undertaken on their reasons for doing so.

Objectives: This study sought to identify in detail the reasons for using CAM among patients with advanced cancer.

Design: Qualitative study using semistructured interviews.

Setting/subjects: Interviews conducted with 39 patients who were participating in a longitudinal study exploring the levels of palliative care received by patients with cancer in Brisbane, Australia. All participants were receiving or had received conventional cancer treatments. Sampling was based on the potential richness of the information provided by the participants and the variability in terms of the regularity of CAM use.

Results: Most participants self-treated with CAM and perceived CAM modalities as complementary rather than alternative to conventional cancer treatments. Within this context, this group of people used CAM to prolong their survival, palliate their symptoms or alleviate the side effects of conventional cancer treatments, detoxify their bodies, boost immunity and enhance their overall quality of life.

Conclusion: When facing an incurable life-threatening illness such as advanced cancer, the decision to use CAM is a pragmatic one. Clinicians need to be aware of what their patients are doing and their rationale for doing so. Screening for physical, emotional, and spiritual discomfort associated not only with the disease but with some of the cancer treatments needs to be given a prominent place in the clinical encounter. Patients with cancer want to know more about how to maintain or improve their quality of life during and after surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy. Fostering an open non-judgmental communication with patients is part of good clinical practice.