An article was recently published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicinediscussing the results of a study conducted to evaluate the prevalence of dietary supplement use among cancer survivors. The study, done in Connecticut, is part of a larger ongoing cohort study funded by the American Cancer Society called the Study of Cancer Survivors I. Leah Ferrucci, PhD, and Brenda Cartmel, PhD, both of the Yale School of Public Health, and Ruth McCorkle, PhD, of the School of Nursing, took part in the study and were authors of the published article.
The article, entitled Factors Related to the Use of Dietary Supplements by Cancer Survivors, explains the population based cross-sectional analysis. 827 cancer survivors in Connecticut were randomly chosen after being identified by the Rapid Case Ascertainment Shared Resource at Yale Cancer Center, a field arm of the Connecticut Tumor Registry, and completed a self-administered National Quality of Life Survey and a supplemental questionnaire.
“One goal of study was to expand the knowledge of the prevalence of dietary supplement use, one form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), after a cancer diagnosis in a population-based sample of survivors focusing on the ten most common cancers. The study also sought to examine associations among demographic, clinical, and psychosocial characteristics and dietary supplement use,” said Dr. Cartmel. “There are some studies published regarding the use of dietary supplement use, but they mainly focus on breast cancer, and we wanted to include patients with other types of cancer as well.”
The results of the Connecticut study, as reported in the article, revealed that women were more likely to use supplements as compared to men after a cancer diagnosis. Nonwhites were less likely than whites to use supplements, and the use of supplements increased with increasing levels of education. The most common diagnosis among participants of the study was breast cancer, followed by prostate cancer, and colorectal cancer. Of the 827 cancer survivors, 573 (69.3%) reported using dietary supplements after their cancer diagnosis. Most patients reported using dietary supplements because it was something they could do to help themselves (56.2%). Another commonly cited reason was to boost their immune system (51.1%).
“With the number of cancer survivors growing rapidly, it is important to better understand the health-related practices of this population,” explained Dr. Ferrucci.
Dietary supplements are a particularly relevant form of CAM therapy to study in cancer survivors as these products have the potential to interact with conventional cancer therapies. CAM therapies are described by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine as, “a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine.”
“In this particular study a high number of survivors (82.4%) reported discussing their use of dietary supplements with their physician after a cancer diagnosis, which is not consistent with some of the other studies that have been done,” said Dr. Ferrucci. Although it was found that gender and education were associated with dietary supplement use, physicians should make sure to ask all their patients what, if any, supplements they are taking. The sharing of information between patient and physician is important as it enables physicians to monitor potential contraindications between CAM therapies and traditional treatments.
The Study of Cancer Survivors I enrolled cancer survivors from 11 states, including Connecticut, and the American Cancer Society will continue to collect data for this nationwide study.