Dietary Supplements and Supplemented Diets

With the spreading of complementary and alternative medicine, countless questions were raised. These queries are particularly important in the field of oncology, where patients seek every possibility to cure cancer. Most oncology treatments have narrow therapeutic index, thus patients more likely to use some as these complementary agents. We wanted not just to measure the use of these complementary products, but also to estimate the patient’s knowledge about them with a guided interview in the Semmelweis University Oncology Center. At the end of the study 71 patients answered the questionnaire. Most of them (91,6%) used products, that contained only vitamin(s). We also measured those regularly consumed foods, which were not functional foods, nor dietary supplements but may influence the bioavailability of drugs (e.g.: daily consumed herbal teas). These agents were utilized by 80,2% of the participants. From the results, it should be also highlighted, that some participants used grapefruit or St. John’s wort, which may cause interactions. So, it is not surprising, that patients, who used herbal remedies or fungal substances did not thought, that agents from these complementary products may interfere with other drugs. On the other hand, majority of the patients hear about or ask about the complementary products from physician and other health care specialists. This means, that most of the negative effects of complementary medicine may be avoidable with a good physician-pharmacist-patient relationship.

Keywords:Oncology, Dietary supplements, Complementary medicine