CANCER-PATIENTS USE OF NONPROVEN THERAPY - A 5-YEAR FOLLOW-UP-STUDY

Purpose: To investigate the prospective pattern of use of alternative medicine, here called nonproven therapy (NPT), among oncologic patient s during a 5-year period, and the relationship between this use and su rvival, a questionnaire based follow up study was performed at the Dep artment of Oncology University of Tromso, from 1990 to 1996. Patients and Methods: Two-hundred fifty-two patients answered the first questio nnaire during the period July 1990 to July 1991. Eligible patients wer e mailed follow-up questionnaires after 4, 12, 24 and 60 months. A tel ephone interview performed after the last follow-up questionnaire show ed little disagreement with the prospective collected information as r egards the number of patients reported as users of NPT (kappa, 0.92). Results: The number of patients who reported ever using NPT in each cr oss-sectional part of the study varied between 17.4% and 27.3%. Howeve r, the estimated cumulative risk of being a user of NPT during the fol low-up period was 45%. Seventy-four percent of NPY users in this north Norwegian study population used faith healing or healing by hand (spi ritual NPT) alone or in combination with other forms of NPT. The propo rtion of patients who used spiritual verses nonspiritual forms of NPT was consistent throughout the follow-up period. Women were more often users than men (50% v31%, P = .002), patients older than 75 years of a ge seldomly used NPT. The 5-year observed survival rate was Plot influ enced by the use of NPT. Adjusted for sex, age, and diagnosis, patient s with a high educational level had a borderline higher 5-year surviva l rate than patients with less education (P = .06). Conclusion: Our re sults demonstrate that cross-sectionally designed studies will underes timate the number of ever-users of NPT in a cancer patient population, the use of NPT does not influence observed survival among cancer pati ents seen in north Norway. (C) 1998 by American Society of Clinical On cology.