Use of dietary supplements by breast cancer patients undergoing conventional cancer treatment

Figures & data

Table 1 Demographic and clinical characteristics of 82 breast cancer patients between June and October 2002 in Hong Kong

	Mean (SD)	Median (range)
Age (years)	45.8 (6.9)	45.0 (30–63)
Duration in Hong Kong (years)	35.5 (15.2)	40.0 (1–59)
Interval between cancer diagnosis and survey (weeks)	56.1 (28.3)	52.0 (8–140)
	Category	Frequency (%)
Sex	Female	82 (100%)
Education	≤Primary	17 (20.7%)
	Form 3	19 (23.2%)
	Form 5/vocational/technical/	28 (34.1%)
	matriculation level	3 (3.7%)
	university/diploma/postgraduate	15 (18.3%)
Occupation	Health professional	3 (3.7%)
	Executive/nonhealth professional	5 (6.1%)
	White collar	13 (15.9%)
	Blue collar	7 (8.5%)
	Housewife/unemployed	54 (65.8%)
Religion	No religious belief	33 (40.2%)
	Christianity	17 (20.7%)
	Buddhism	13 (15.9%)
	Ancestor	2 (2.4%)
	Multireligion	17 (20.7%)
Marital status	Single	8 (9.8%)
	Married	69 (84.1%)
	Divorced	4 (4.9%)
	Widowed	1 (1.2%)
Location of birth	Hong Kong	48 (58.5%)
	Mainland China	31 (37.8%)
	Other Asian countries	3 (3.7%)
Location of residence	Hong Kong Island	8 (9.8%)
	Kowloon	24 (29.3%)
	New Territories	50 (61%)
Cancer status	Stage I	24 (29.3%)
	Stage II	51 (62.2%)
	Stage III	7(8.5%)
Cancer treatment	Surgery	82 (100%)
	Chemotherapy	64 (78%)
	Radiotherapy	61 (74.4%)
	Hormone replacement therapy	58 (70.7%)

Table 2 Demographic characteristics of dietary supplement used by breast cancer patients

	Category		Use of supplement
			Yes (n = 81)	No (n = 1)
Age (years)	Mean (SD)		45.9 (6.9)	39 (n.a.)
Duration in Hong Kong (years)	Mean (SD)		35.7 (15.3)	21 (n.a.)
Interval from cancer diagnosis to survey (weeks)
	Mean (SD)		56.6 (28.2)	20 (n.a.)
Education	≤Primary level		36 (100%)	0 (0%)
	≥Secondary level		45 (97.8)	1 (2.2%)
Occupation	Working class		27 (96.4%)	1 (3.6%)
	Housewife/retired/unemployed		54 (100%)	0 (0%)
Religion	No religious belief		33 (100%)	0 (0%)
	Have religious belief		48 (98%)	1 (2%)
Marital status	Single		8 (100%)	0 (0%)
	Married		73 (98.6%)	1 (1.4%)
Location of birth	Hong Kong		48 (100%)	0 (0%)
	Other countries		33 (97.1%)	1 (2.9%)
Location of residence	Not New Territories		31 (96.9%)	1 (3.1%)
	New Territories		50 (100%)	0 (0%)
Cancer status	Stage I		23 (95.8%)	1 (4.2%)
	Stage II		51 (100%)	0 (0%)
	Stage III		7 (100%)	0 (0%)
Cancer treatment	Surgery	Yes	81 (98.8%)	1 (1.2%)
		No	0 (0%)	0 (0%)
	Chemotherapy	Yes	63 (98.4%)	1 (1.6%)
		No	18 (100%)	0 (0%)
	Radiotherapy	Yes	61 (100%)	0 (0%)
		No	20 (95.2%)	1 (4.8%)
	Hormone replacement therapy	Yes	58 (100%)	0 (0%)
		No	23 (95.8%)	1 (4.2%)

Abbreviations: SD, standard deviation; n.a, not available.

Table 3 Classification and frequency of dietary supplement used in 82 breast cancer patients

	Frequency (%)
Dietary supplement
No	1 (1.2%)
Yes	81 (98.8)
Western supplement	14 (17.3%)
Chinese supplement	81 (100%)
Herbal tea	53 (65.4%)
Herbal soup	48 (59.3%)
Proprietary medicine	42 (51.9%)
Other plant/animal supplements	12 (14.8%)

Table 4 Top five dietary supplement ingredients used in 81 breast cancer patients

Type of dietary supplement and ingredients	Frequency	Percent
Western supplement ingredients (14 users)*
Any vitamins	12	86
Calcium supplement	6	43
Glucosine sulphate	1	7
Omega3	1	7
Herbal tea ingredients (53 users)
Hedyotis diffusa	29	55
Herba scutellariae barbatae	24	45
Ganoderma lucidum	14	26
Spica prunellae	8	15
Flos lonicerae japonicae and Flos chrysanthemi	7	13
Herbal soup ingredients (48 users)
Rhizoma dioscoreae	29	60
Semen euryales	20	42
Fructus lycii	16	33
Arillus longan	12	25
Semen nelumbinis	11	23
Chinese proprietary medicine (42 users)
Coriolus vesicolor	25	60
Ganoderma lucidum	16	38
Radix isatidis	1	2
Radix et Rhizoma ginseng	1	2
Pteria margaritifera	1	2
Other plants/animals extraction supplements (12 users)
Shark extraction	4	33
Fish oil extraction	3	25
Bird nest extraction	1	8
Green tea extraction	1	8
Grape seed extraction	1	8

Note:

* Only 4 types of western supplements reported in 81 breast cancer patients.

Table 5 Expenditure on dietary supplement per month (US$) in 82 breast cancer patients

	Mean (SD)	Median (range)
Dietary supplement	257.8 (2.6)	178.8 (0–1679.9)
Western supplement	2.6 (9.5)	0 (0–59.8)
Chinese supplement	250 (257.8)	178.8 (0–1679.9)
Herbal tea	14.7 (48.7)	0.8 (0–412.8)
Herbal soup	29.7 (100.4)	1.3 (0–717.9)
Proprietary medicine	67.5 (140.4)	3.2 (0–112.5)
Traditional Chinese medicine practitioner consultation	138.1 (166.8)	76.9 (0–717.9)
Other plants/animals supplements	5.2 (17.7)	0 (0–92.3)

Table 6 Reason for taking dietary supplements in 81 breast cancer patients

Reasons	Frequency (%)
Enhance recovery	38 (47%)
Cancer prevention	25 (31%)
Enhance immune	21 (26%)
Lessen side effects of chemotherapy	11 (14%)
Lessen side effects of hormone replacement therapy	4 (5%)
Clear disease root	3 (4%)
Remove internal heat and toxin	3 (4%)
General health promotion	3 (4%)
Increase survival rate	1 (1%)