Combining traditional and alternative treatments was also associated with worse outcomes compared to patients who received traditional treatments. Patients who received CAM and traditional treatments had 1.4 times higher mortality— a 40% higher chance of dying within five years—compared to patients receiving only traditional treatments.
“There has been so much progress in traditional treatments, we were not surprised that patients who go without them have a far worse outcome,” says Daniel Boffa, MD, professor of surgery at YSM and senior author of study. “We were surprised, however, that the combination group also did worse, because there is some evidence that CAM can reduce the side effects of traditional treatments.”
Digging further into the data yielded clues as to why a combination approach might lead to lower survival rates.
“It seemed from the data that the patients who used CAM in combination [with traditional therapies] were skipping some of the traditional treatments, particularly radiation and endocrine therapies, which likely contributed to the lower survival,” Boffa explains.
These findings highlight the importance of traditional treatments, and the negative consequences of skipping even a portion of them, he adds.