![]() For those patients, Scott offers to monitor their health in his clinic. Some patients stick to their holistic hopes for a cure. This study you were talking about has 150 people in it and the thing I read online has just one person in it so, yeah, you have to weigh the evidence that’s going to work, and one person is not much evidence.’” Scott said. “Usually people will say, ‘OK, that makes sense. His non-confrontational script is long on hard facts.ĭoes that sway any alternative-or-bust attitudes? He shows them results from studies and randomized clinical trials involving hundreds of cancer patients, many or most of whom were successfully and safely treated with science-derived therapies. I’m your adviser but I’m not your decision-maker.’ I try to take a data-driven approach,” said Scott, a medical oncologist at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, specializing in the treatment of patients with myelodysplastic syndrome – diseases of the bone marrow that are sometimes referred to as “preleukemias.”įor patients swayed by hearing of a person whose malignancy was cured by a natural remedy, Scott has a ready response: What works for one person may not work for another. “I always say, ‘you can choose what you would like to do. What’s the best path forward with patients who opt to opt-out? Five years ago, about 10 percent of his patients took similar stands. Following diagnoses, about 20 to 25 percent of his patients tell him they plan to refuse or put off chemo and/or radiation in favor of natural therapies, he estimated. Bart Scott, those chats are becoming more common. “Conversations need to include why people may be interested in using, what effects they are hoping to achieve, and the state of science on the efficacy of different therapies,” Greenlee said via email.įor oncologist Dr. Among the participants for whom chemotherapy was indicated, 11 percent didn’t start that treatment, researchers reported. Nearly nine out of 10 were taking natural supplements, herbs, and minerals, or practicing mind-body therapies. women with invasive breast cancer that had not spread. Greenlee and her colleagues studied 685 U.S. She’s a former postdoctoral fellow at Fred Hutch. Heather Greenlee of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “We think that these results point to a need for patients and clinicians to engage in informed decision making about use following a cancer diagnosis,” said lead author Dr. ![]() Women who were prescribed chemo for early-stage breast cancer and who also used several types of alternative medicine were less likely to start chemotherapy than nonusers, according to a study published this month in JAMA Oncology. Of course, devotees’ full faith in natural cures likely puts them at odds with their oncologist’s guidance. ![]() It’s particularly popular among survivors of melanoma, breast and colorectal cancer. Among North American cancer patients, alternative medicine use has been rising since 2000 as a complementary tactic to Western therapies, reports the National Institutes of Health. ![]() Statistics, too, show chemotherapy alternatives are growing in popularity. That choice seems to be gaining favor for some who have faced malignancies, say researchers and doctors. ![]() Now 18, legally an adult, she said she’s pursuing “alternative treatments.” She wanted to try holistic remedies, calling chemotherapy “poison.” In April, Callender revealed that a new mass was detected in her lung. News of another chemotherapy refusal is reviving focus on alternative cancer therapies – and on what advice doctors should give patients who spurn the conventional for the natural.Īt 17, as a minor with lymphoma, Cassandra Callender was confined to a hospital last year by Connecticut officials and forced to undergo chemo. “But the patients are the ones who, ultimately, have the right to choose – with good education and recommendations from us,” said Gralow, who monitored the patient’s overall health amid those alternative therapies.
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