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Practice Point
Complementary medicines and alternative therapies – Advice
Advise all patients with breast cancer that complementary medicines or alternative therapies should not be used instead of standard therapies for the purpose of improving breast cancer survival.
Complementary or alternative therapies should not be given with the aim of suppressing progression of breast cancer or prolonging survival.
Useful Links
- Information about complementary and alternative therapies (Cancer Australia)
- Cancer Australia position statement on complementary and alternative medicines
- Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) webpage on ‘Complementary medicines’
- Information ‘about herbs’ (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center – MSKCC)
How this guidance was developed
This practice point was developed using an expert consensus process. Development of the practice point was informed by a source recommendation in the JBCS 2016 guidelines (Japan) that was not graded by the source guideline authors and which was based on a non-systematic review of the evidence (the date of the review was not reported). The importance of distinguishing between complementary medicines, complimentary therapies, and alternative therapies, is noted.
Complementary medicines and alternative therapies – Advice
Practice Point
Advise all patients with breast cancer that complementary medicines or alternative therapies should not be used instead of standard therapies for the purpose of improving breast cancer survival.
Principles in action
Safe and quality care
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Communication
Useful Links
- Information about complementary and alternative therapies (Cancer Australia)
- Cancer Australia position statement on complementary and alternative medicines
- Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) webpage on ‘Complementary medicines’
- Information ‘about herbs’ (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center – MSKCC)
This practice point was developed using an expert consensus process. Development of the practice point was informed by a source recommendation in the JBCS 2016 guidelines (Japan) that was not graded by the source guideline authors and which was based on a non-systematic review of the evidence (the date of the review was not reported). The importance of distinguishing between complementary medicines, complimentary therapies, and alternative therapies, is noted.