Cancer patients warned against DIY remedies

Published on Wednesday 21 July 2010 18:25

CANCER patients risk shortening their lives by taking herbal remedies and supplements which stop their conventional treatment working properly, Scottish doctors have warned.

Some common complementary therapies, such as St John's Wort or special "anti-cancer diets", can increase or decrease the amount of chemotherapy drugs circulating in the body.

Doctors believe the problem has grown as more people seek information on the internet in attempts to beat the disease. But many are unaware that in doing so they may be compromising the success of their traditional treatment.

Experts are now calling for medical staff to ask cancer patients about any other remedies they may be taking to try to prevent possibly lethal interactions.

Dr Jim Cassidy, Cancer Research UK professor of oncology at the Beatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow, said interactions with complementary therapies were a major issue.

"For me it is an almost daily occurrence that I would see patients in the clinic and would have to say to them it would be a good idea for you not to take these tablets," he said.

The most common supplement is multivitamins, but Cassidy said he had also seen patients who were taking shark cartilage and viper venom.

An article in the new edition of Cancer World magazine warns that patients are often unaware of the "delicate balance" in the body which allow cancer drugs to work.

The report warns that some interactions could increase the amount of active drug circulating in the body, with potentially fatal consequences, while other make treatments less effective.

Interactions have been reported or suspected with remedies including starfruit, St John's Wort, kava-kava, valerian root, goldenseal and ginseng.

Jutta Hbner, a medical oncologist in Frankfurt, said the problem of interactions was steadily growing, and it did not always involve patients taking herbal treatments.

She highlighted one case where a patient suffered serious side-effects because she had been drinking her own urine as she had read it could help fight cancer. This meant the patient was effectively giving herself a second dose of chemotherapy due to the drugs in the urine.

In another case a patient on a low-fat "cancer diet" lost so much weight that the chemotherapy dose she started on was too big for her reduced size.

Cassidy said that sometimes people were embarrassed about talking to their doctor about their alternative therapies, so he made a point of asking them upfront. He said other doctors needed to do the same.

A dangerous cocktail

WHEN Gordon Armour's wife, Jean, right, was diagnosed with cancer, her daughter suggested they visit an alternative therapist in the hope of helping her battle the disease.

The therapist claimed to be able to tell what vitamin and mineral supplements she should take based on a sample of hair.

But the cocktail of tablets the 52-year-old was given at the end of the session could have put her conventional treatment for lung cancer at risk.

"The therapist took a lock of Jean's hair and put it in a wee pill dish. She sat it on an electronic box and kept damping her fingers. When I looked closer it was like a buzzer she had on her finger."

The therapist, wearing two copper belts around her waist, then held a probe over the different remedies until it made a buzzing noise. At the end of the session, which cost the family over 100, she gave Mrs Armour four different tablets.

"When I questioned her about it, the therapist said: 'We use the method to take a DNA sample.' No way was she going anywhere near DNA. I had to get up and leave the room at that moment."

Suspicious about what his wife had been given, Armour decided to ask professional advice before letting her take the tablets, one of which contained magnesium.

"When I spoke to the consultant at Jean's first consultation for chemotherapy, he looked at two of them and said they were OK, they were just vitamins," he said. "But he said don't go anywhere near the other two." Armour said it was suspected one of the tablets could have affected his wife's blood cell levels, potentially impacting on the chemotherapy if she had taken them.

Despite her conventional treatment, Jean died in July 2006, six months after her diagnosis.

Armour, 57, said he was angry that some alternative practitioners could be putting their treatment at risk.

"I am not against alternative medicine - I know some people swear by it - but I do have a problem with charlatans who take advantage of people when they are ill and in need of help."