Perspectives of Cancer Survivors Interested in Unconventional Therapies

Abstract

Thirty-two survivors of cancer who demonstrated an interest in unconventional therapies were interviewed. The results showed that Ihey had a variety of motivations for their interest. They consistently portrayed the mainstream cancer care system as tolerating the use of unconventional approaches while essentially remaining disengaged from the subject. Many of the survivors argued that health care professionals should be more interested in, more informed about, and more willing to discuss unconventional therapies. They also believed that personal experience was an important source of evidence for considering treatment options and that health care professionals often ignored this evidence, paying attention only to randomized clinical trials. In general, the survivors made a case for a better response from the health care system regarding consumers' needs concerning unconventional treatment options. Whether and how these needs are addressed represents a major and important challenge for the mainstream cancer care system.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Manon Labrecque

Dr. Gray is Consulting Psychologist and Scientist, Greenberg is Health Promotions Manager, Fitch is Head of Oncology Nursing, Ms. Parry is Project Coordinator and Ms. Douglas is a cancer survivor and member of the Executive Committee, Ontario Breast Cancer Information Exchange Project, and Ms. Labrecque is a Psychology Research Assistant, Toronto-Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, University of Toronto, North York, Ontario. (Address correspondence to Dr. Gray, Toronto-Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, University of Toronto, 2075 Bayview Avenue, North York, Ontario M4N 3M5, Canada.) Funding for the project was provided hy the Ontario Breast Cancer Information Exchange, an initiative sponsored by Health Canada.