A Descriptive Study of Departmental Policies Regarding Patients' Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Ontario Radiation Therapy Centres

While patient use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) during cancer treatment is popular, its research is limited. It is anticipated that practices differ considerably amongst practitioners and cancer centres. This study explored current variability in Ontario cancer centres regarding departmental policies and patient education literature for CAM.

A semi-structured telephone survey was used to gather data from nine radiation therapy departments across Ontario. One representative was purposefully selected from each centre.

Analysis of quantitative data was mainly descriptive and representational, while qualitative data was evaluated using thematic analysis.

While six of nine centres had policies on CAM, only two centres considered their policies as sufficient. For patient education literature, five of nine centres had literature on CAM, but only one centre deemed it sufficient.

The results demonstrated considerable differences regarding CAM policies and patient education literature in Ontario cancer centres. A common theme was that policies and literature were either too general or absent altogether. A standardized approach would ensure consistent patient teaching on this topic.