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The effect of complementary and alternative medicine on the quality of life of cancer survivors : a systematic review and meta-analyses
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Shneerson, Catherine, Taskila, Taina, Gale, Nicola, Greenfield, Sheila and Chen, Y-F. (2013) The effect of complementary and alternative medicine on the quality of life of cancer survivors : a systematic review and meta-analyses. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 21 (4). pp. 417-429. doi:10.1016/j.ctim.2013.05.003 ISSN 0965-2299.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2013.05.003
Abstract
Purpose
To assess whether quality of life (QOL) improved in cancer survivors who had undertaken a complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) intervention, compared to cancer survivors who had not.
Methods
A systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) was undertaken. Electronic databases including MEDLINE, Cochrane CENTRAL, CINAHL, PSYCHINFO, EMBASE, and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched from 1990 to 2012. Search terms incorporating the concepts of cancer survivors, QOL and various types of CAM were used.
Results
From 1767 records retrieved and screened 13 full text articles were included in the review. Nine studies were deemed to have a high risk, one a low risk, and three an unclear risk of bias. CAM interventions used incorporated yoga, meditation or mindfulness, energy healing, medical qigong, homoeopathy, or mistletoe therapy. Ten of the studies used breast cancer survivors, whilst the remaining three included other cancer types. The studies had mixed results either showing a significantly greater improvement in QOL in the intervention group compared to the control group, or no significant difference between groups. However, twelve studies were of low to moderate quality, limiting the robustness of findings.
Conclusions
This review has identified significant gaps in the evidence base for the effectiveness of CAM on QOL in cancer survivors.
Further work in this field needs to adopt more rigorous methodology to help support cancer survivors to actively embrace self-management and effective CAMs, without recommending inappropriate interventions which are of no proven benefit.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Health Sciences > Population, Evidence & Technologies (PET) Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School |
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| Journal or Publication Title: | Complementary Therapies in Medicine | ||||
| Publisher: | Churchill Livingstone | ||||
| ISSN: | 0965-2299 | ||||
| Official Date: | August 2013 | ||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 21 | ||||
| Number: | 4 | ||||
| Page Range: | pp. 417-429 | ||||
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ctim.2013.05.003 | ||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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