Positive Health Online

Abstract

BURSTEIN and colleagues, Department of Adult Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115 USA analysed the use of alternative medicine by women who had received standard therapy for early-stage breast cancer and who had been diagnosed between September 1993 and September 1995.

Background

Methodology

480 women with newly diagnosed early-stage breast cancer were recruited from a state-wide cohort of women participating in a study of how women choose cancer treatment. Alternative medical treatments, conventional therapies and health-related quality of life were evaluated.

Results

New use of alternative medicine following breast cancer surgery was reported by 28.1% of women. This use was not associated with choices regarding standard medical therapies. 10.6% of the women had used alternative medicine prior to breast cancer diagnosis. The women who initiated the use of alternative medicine following surgery reported a worse quality of life then women who had never used alternative medicine. The mental health scores were similar at baseline between the two groups of women; however, 3 months following surgery, the use of alternative medicine was independently associated with depression, fear of recurrence of cancer, lower scores for mental health and sexual satisfaction, more physical symptoms as well as symptoms of greater intensity. All groups of women reported improving quality of life one year following surgery.

Conclusion

In women with newly diagnosed early-stage breast cancer who had been treated with standard therapies, the new use of alternative medicine was a marker of greater psychosocial distress and worse quality of life.

References

Burstein HJ et al. Use of alternative medicine by women with early-stage breast cancer . New England Journal of Medicine 340(22): 1733-9. Jun 3 1999.

Comment

Perhaps it is too early to classify women using alternative medicine as having a worse quality of life when, one year after, all the women reported an improving quality of life.