Traditional and Complementary Medicine Use Among Indigenous Cancer Patients in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States: A Systematic Review

Integrative Cancer Therapies
Alana GallGail Garvey

Abstract

Cancer 'patients' are increasingly using traditional indigenous and complementary medicines (T&CM) alongside conventional medical treatments to both cure and cope with their cancer diagnoses. To date T&CM use among Indigenous cancer patients from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States has not been systematically reviewed. We systematically searched bibliographic databases to identify original research published between January 2000 and October 2017 regarding T&CM use by Indigenous cancer patients in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. Data from records meeting eligibility criteria were extracted and appraised for quality by 2 independent reviewers. Twenty-one journal articles from 18 studies across all 4 countries met our inclusion criteria. T&CM use ranged from 19% to 57.7% (differing across countries). T&CM was mostly used concurrently with conventional cancer treatments to meet their spiritual, emotional, social, and cultural needs; however, bush, traditional, and herbal medicines were used in a minority of cases as an alternative. Our findings highlight the importance of T&CM use to Indigenous cancer patients across these 4 countries; we identified multiple perceived spiritual, emotional an...Continue Reading

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Citations

Feb 29, 2020·International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health·Christina M BernardesJudith A Meiklejohn
Apr 10, 2020·Academic Medicine : Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges·Meredith GiulianiJanneke Frambach
Jan 11, 2022·The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews·Kate E RobertsNatasha E Woodward

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