William L. Dahut

The Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Prostate Cancer Patients

egardless of the level of acceptance by the mainstream medical community, the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in cancer patients has been increasing both worldwide and in the United States. People are using CAM as an alternative to conventional therapies or in addition to conventional therapies as complementary care.! Among cancer patients, vitamins and herbs are the second most popular types of CAM, according to a study by Richardson and colleagues. (Spiritual practices lead the list.) The researchers found that two-thirds of vitamin and herb users were also receiving chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or surgery. Nam and colleagues reported that the prevalence rates of CAM use among patients with prostate cancer and those at high risk were 27.4 to 38.9 percent and 25.8 to 80 percent, respectively. A significant number of patients who used CAM did not report its use to physicians. Vitamin E was found to be the most popular form of CAM in this study. Since the passage of the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and