Researchers have found that patients and oncologists may be supportive of complementary therapies for cancer treatment, according to a new survey conducted on behalf of the Healing Works Foundation. However, the findings also indicated there may be a disconnect between the growing interest in complementary therapies and oncologists’ perceptions of patient support.
Background
Complementary therapies include nutrition counseling, exercise, massage, and mediation.
“Navigating a cancer diagnosis is about treating the whole [patient], not just the disease,” explained Wayne Jonas, MD, President of the Healing Works Foundation. “Oncologists are the single most influential factors in patient treatment decisions, and [physicians] must be educating themselves to help drive patient outcomes and treatment satisfaction. They need to understand that patients increasingly want to hear directly about all possible support during and after treatment of the cancer,” he added.
Survey Findings
In the recent survey, researchers asked more than 1,000 patients with cancer and 150 oncologists from June 2023 to July 2023 about their attitudes toward complementary therapies. The researchers found that more than 60% of the patients strongly believed in complementary therapies, and 71% of them wanted their health systems to offer them. Further, 55% of the patients said they would have chosen a health system with more complementary therapies if they could choose again, which was up substantially from 40% in 2022.
Among the oncologists, 57% believed that complementary therapies were effective at managing the side effects of cancer treatments, whereas 33% of them indicated the treatments improved overall survival.
However, when asked about usage, 64% of the patients reported using at least one complementary therapy, but most of them never informed their oncologists. As a result, the oncologists thought that only 40% of their patients used one of these approaches.
In addition, 33% of the oncologists stated that their patients lacked interest in complementary therapies. Conversely, 13% of the patients cited a lack of interest when asked about barriers.
The patients also noted additional barriers to adoption of complementary therapies—including the need for education about the benefits, reimbursement or other funding assistance, and a lack of guidance from their oncologists. Although the oncologists agreed that insurance reimbursement was a major barrier, they also reported that health systems did not have enough physical therapists, psychologists, and pain specialists to offer these therapies.
The researchers revealed that patient use of complementary therapies also varied based on demographics. Here are some of their findings:
- Hispanic patients (92%) and Black patients (83%) reported the highest use of complementary therapies and were interested in learning more about them.
- Female patients (70%) supported the use of complementary therapies, whereas their actual use was nearly equal between male (62%) and female patients (66%).
- Younger patients (aged 18–50) were more likely to use a range of complementary therapies, especially mental health support/therapy, nutrition counseling, and meditation or mindfulness.
Conclusions
“A communication gap—not an interest gap—appears to be one of the biggest barriers between patients and oncologists when exploring complementary options to support overall treatment,” emphasized Dr. Jonas. “[Physicians] need to be proactive and talk to their patients about evidence-based integrative health options early in the process, before patients go exploring on their own and possibly getting into trouble,” he stressed.
To learn more about the recent survey, visit healingworksfoundation.org.
