ArticleJournal of cancer research and clinical oncology2023
Lay etiology concepts of cancer patients do not correlate with their usage of complementary and/or alternative medicine.
Article in Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Feelings of guilt among cancer patients and the usage of complementary or alternative medicine - A cross-sectional survey.Palliative & supportive care · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundThe usage of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is widespread among cancer patients. While reasons for and aims of using CAM have been evaluated in many studies, less is known about whether patients' concepts of how and why cancer develops has an influence on the choice of the CAM method.
methodsWe pooled the data from all studies of our working group containing questions on lay etiological concepts and CAM usage and reanalyzed them with respect to the associations between these parameters.
resultsThe pooled dataset from 12 studies included 4792 patients. A third (1645 patients) reported using CAM. Most often used were supplements (55.9%), relaxation techniques (43.6%), and homeopathy (37.9%). Regarding perceived causes, patients most often marked stress (35.4%) followed by genes (31.9%). While all lay etiological beliefs were highly significantly associated with usage of CAM in general, there was no association between single lay etiological concepts and types of CAM used. Yet, in a network analysis, we found two associations: one comprising trauma, mistletoe, genes, and nutritional supplements, the other yoga, vitamin C, nutritional supplements, and TCM herbs. In the correlation heatmap, one cluster comprises etiological concepts of personality, immune system and trauma, and two clusters of CAM methods emerged: one comprising praying, yoga, meditation, and relaxation procedures, the other nutritional supplements, selenium, vitamins A and C.
conclusionWhile physicians are trained to derive treatment strategies from etiological concepts, lay people choosing CAM do not follow these rules, which may point to other needs of patients addressed by CAM.
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