Alternative cancer therapy survival risk#BTXW

Alternative cancer therapy survival risk Cancer patients who use complementary therapies may be more likely to shun conventional treatments and risk their chances of survival, research suggests. The papers authors said it was likely the results for those who used complementary therapies would have been worse were it not for the fact that they were a group that had better cancer survival chances to begin with. Although researchers linked the lower chances of survival to refusing or delaying standard treatments, lead author Dr. Skyler Johnson, from Yale School of Medicine, told the BBC it was also possible some alternative treatments could interact with conventional treatment and make it less effective. Although they may be used to support patients experiencing symptoms from cancer treatment, it looks as though they are either being marketed or understood to be effective cancer treatments. Martin Ledwick, Cancer Research UKs head information nurse said complementary therapies might help improve wellbeing or quality of life for some patients. But it is important that patients considering them do not see them as an alternative to conventional treatments that have been shown though clinical trials to make a real difference to survival, he said.