Complementary therapy and cancer: decision making by patients and their physicians setting a research agenda

An invitational meeting, entitled Complementary and Alternative Therapy: De cision Making by Cancer Patients and Their Physicians, brought together Can adian health care providers and researchers who had expertise in patient-ph ysician communication with those who were knowledgeable about complementary therapy and cancer. The aim was to build on the existing knowledge base in both fields in order to determine the unanswered questions, the most impor tant questions, and what methods can be applied for answering these questio ns. The interdisciplinary group employed a step-wise collaborative process to develop a suggested research agenda regarding decision making by physici ans and their cancer patients regarding complementary therapy. The four the mes identified are establishment of a registry for complementary therapy us age for cancer care; communication; outcomes measurement; and models of int egration. It is hoped that these themes will be considered worthy of suppor t by funding agencies and worthy of investigation by researchers. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.