Prostate Cancer Patients Often Seek Alternative Therapy

Use of complimentary medicine is a very common in patients who have a diagnosis of prostate cancer. In fact about one third of prostate cancer patients in the United States use some type of complementary or alternative medicine. This finding was revealed in a large national study. The survey also showed that as many as half of patients who use such alternative therapies don't discuss this issue with their physicians. It is important that all patients who are using alternative or complimentary forms of treatment convey this information to their physicians. Past studies have found that prostate cancer patients often begin taking alternative or complementary medicines after receiving their diagnosis. To investigate more specifically, Elkin and his colleagues looked at use of more than 50 different types of complementary or alternative medicines in a group of 2,582 men in a registry of prostate cancer patients. One third reported using some type of alternative medicine, with 26% using mineral or vitamin supplements, 16% taking herbs, 13% taking antioxidants and 12% taking some type of alternative treatment for "prostate health," such as saw palmetto or lycopene.