Prevalence in the use of complementary medicine among cancer patients in Tuscany, Italy.

Aims and BackgroundA previous survey by Molassiotis et al. (Ann Oncol, 16: 655–663, 2005) on the use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) among cancer patients in Europe reported that 73% of the Italian cancer patients had used CAM, a number well above the European average of 36%. Some national variation in preference of CAM was reported, and Italian cancer patients were reported to have high use of homeopathy, herbal medicine, and spiritual therapies. The difference between CAM use in Italy and other European countries intrigued a further investigation of CAM use among Italian cancer patients.MethodsA survey using the same questionnaire as Molassiotis et al. was conducted at two oncology day hospitals in Tuscany and included 132 patients (55% male, 45% female, with various forms of cancer) on chemotherapy. The response rate was 71%.ResultsThe incidence of CAM use after the cancer diagnosis among the Tuscan cancer patients was 17%. The most widely used forms were herbal medicine (52%), homeopa...