‘Alternative therapy patients die sooner’

CANCER patients who choose complementary medicine over chemotherapy or surgery are twice as likely to die within seven years, the first major study has shown.

Researchers from Yale University followed 1,290 patients who were diagnosed with breast, prostate, lung, or colorectal cancer between 2004 and 2013. Of those, they found 258 used complementary medicine and 1,032 used conventional therapies.

After seven years, around 85 per cent of those on recommended medical treatment survived, compared with 70 per cent of those who chose an alternative treatment.

“The fact that complementary medicine use is associated with higher refusal of proven cancer treatments as well as increased risk of death should give providers and patients pause,” said Dr Skyler Johnson, the chief resident in radiation oncology at Yale School of Medicine. “Unfortunately, there is a great deal of confusion about the role of complementary therapies.

“Although they may be used to support patients experiencing symptoms of cancer, it looks as though they are either being marketed or understood to be effective cancer treatments.”

The research was published in the journal JAMA Oncology.