Purpose

This study aimed to investigate the use of non-conventional medicine (NCM) among long-term cancer survivors and its links with healthy behavior.

Methods

This study used data from the VICAN survey, conducted in 2015–2016 on a representative sample of French cancer survivors 5 years after diagnosis.

Results

Among the 4174 participants, 21.4% reported using NCM at the time of the survey, including 8.4% who reported uses not associated with cancer. The most frequently cited reasons for using NCM were to improve their physical well-being (83.0%), to strengthen their body (71.2%), to improve their emotional well-being (65.2%), and to relieve the side effects of treatment (50.7%). The NCM users who reported using NCM to cure cancer or prevent relapses (8.5% of the participants) also used NCM for other reasons. They had more often experienced cancer progression, feared a recurrence, and had a poorer quality of life because of sequelae, pain, and fatigue. They also consulted their general practitioners more frequently and had changed their lifestyle by adopting more healthy practices.

Conclusion

The use of NCM is not an alternative but a complementary means of coping with impaired health. Further research is now required to determine whether the use of NCM reflects a lifestyle change or whether it assists survivors rather to make behavioral changes.

Implications for Cancer Survivors

The use of NCM should alert physicians to survivors’ impaired quality of life. It might be useful to provide patients with NCM guidelines in order to inform their decision and to prevent unrealistic expectations.

中文翻译：

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癌症幸存者使用非常规药物和生活方式的改变：来自全国VICAN调查的证据。

目的

这项研究旨在调查长期癌症幸存者中使用非常规药物（NCM）及其与健康行为的关系。

方法

这项研究使用了2015年至2016年进行的VICAN调查数据，该数据来自于诊断后5年的法国癌症幸存者的代表性样本。

结果

在4174名参与者中，有21.4％的人在调查时报告使用NCM，包括8.4％的人报告与癌症无关的用途。使用NCM的最常见原因是改善身体健康（83.0％），增强身体（71.2％），改善情绪健康（65.2％）以及减轻治疗的副作用（50.7％）。报告使用NCM治愈癌症或预防复发的NCM用户（占参与者的8.5％）也出于其他原因使用了NCM。由于后遗症，疼痛和疲劳，他们更常经历癌症进展，担心复发并且生活质量较差。他们还更频繁地咨询全科医生，并通过采取更健康的做法改变了他们的生活方式。

结论

NCM的使用不是替代方法，而是应对健康受损的补充手段。现在需要进行进一步的研究以确定NCM的使用是否反映了生活方式的改变，或者它是否有助于幸存者而不是改变行为。

对癌症幸存者的影响

使用NCM应该提醒医生注意幸存者的生活质量受损。为患者提供NCM指南以告知他们的决定并防止不切实际的期望可能很有用。