The 'complementary' therapies cancer patients most commonly mention to their doctors - actually potentially undermine their treatments according to a report.
Researchers performed an audit on 462 patients enquiries about alternative therapies received by the Peter MacCallumCancer Centre in Melbourne according to The Guardian.
Apart from vitamins and minerals, these patients asked about fish oil, turmeric, coenzyme Q10, milk thistle, green tea, ginger, lactobacillus, licorice, astragalus and reishi mushroom.
All of these have known interactions with evidence based cancer treatments.
“These products may increase the effects of chemotherapy and put the patient at risk of toxicity, or decrease the efficacy of chemotherapy,” The lead researcher of the study and a senior pharmacist at the centre, Sally Brooks, said.
“Those that contain high levels of antioxidants may interfere with both chemotherapy and radiation therapy.”
According to the report, other studies have found that alternative medicines are associated with lower quality of life and earlier death for patients.
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