Complementary Medicine Offers Relief to Breast Cancer Sufferers
Many British women with breast cancer are now seeking and gaining relief from numerous different complementary therapies. The types of treatments being chosen range from acupuncture, massage and manual drainage, to reflexology and aromatherapy.
However, while more and more UK women are seeking relief from their symptoms or from the effects of their conventional treatments, the debate about who should pay continues to rattle backwards and forwards. Breast cancer patients feel that the relief they gain from complementary therapy is so great that it far outweighs the cost and, for this reason, many women are funding their therapy sessions out of their own pockets.
"As far as I am concerned, it is money well spent," says Sue Lumsden, who visits a spiritual healer once a week and pays for her own treatment. "I am not sure how it works, but I think it's akin to hypnosis. Afterwards, I feel much better physically and emotionally. I usually get a couple of really good nights' sleep and feel more comfortable in my body."
A recent study, commissioned by Prince Charles, has called on the National Health Service to make complementary medicine available on a much broader scale.
However, Tim Bucknall, a consultant breast surgeon at Queen's Hospital in Burton-on-Trent says " believes, "Some therapies are proving very worthwhile, and I am strongly in favour of them being offered free to patients, but we fund them through a charity." "The NHS should pay for Herceptin, not complementary therapies." he said.
It is striking to note that in cancer treatment today complementary therapies have virtually become mainstream, with some 80% of oncology departments now making available, at no cost, at least one form of therapy. However, only recently has it emerged that once hospital treatment has been concluded patients are going on to privately fund continuing complementary therapies over a long period of time.
"Research suggests that one reason people with cancer use complementary therapies is because they like spending time with the therapist, and developing a relationship where they can talk easily at a difficult period in their lives," says Dr Jane Maher, who is a consultant oncologist at the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre in Middlesex, UK. "Most oncologists recognise that complementary therapies bring benefits to patients. We are not talking about a cure, but about quality of life." she says.
Further support for this approach comes from Liz Carroll, who is head of clinical services at Breast Cancer Care. She believes that following a breast cancer diagnosis, complementary therapies can help support the management by patients of a number of the different emotional changes they are bound to undergo.
She says, "Choosing a complementary treatment makes people feel they are taking control of their lives by looking after themselves, and being as well as they can be while going through treatment."
Pharmaceutical International's Newsdesk
