In many respects, alternative cancer therapies represent the antithesis of these perceived values and actions. Patients are simultaneously drawn away from mainstream medicine and toward alternative care. A major reason for today's massive public and professional interest in alternatives is dissatisfaction with the technologic and impersonal nature of modern medicine. Patients complain about insensitive, limited, and hurried interactions with oncologists in every setting, from small suburban hospitals to the top comprehensive cancer centers. Provisions frequently are not made for anticipated side effects of chemotherapy, and sometimes patients are not even told to expect these effects.
Patients often feel helpless and ignored.
Many fail to understand why oncologic medicine does not include the nontoxic complementary techniques, standard in other countries, that control pain effectively, reduce stress, and alleviate symptoms. The United States is approximately 2 years behind most European countries in establishing government-level offices of complementary medicine and in offering complementary therapies to augment mainstream oncologic care. Alternative practitioners are viewed as more caring, as treating the whole person, and as providing more emotionally satisfying, communicative relationships. Many take more time than conventional physicians to develop detailed personal histories of their patients and to talk about concerns other than the disease process. Because they value quality as well as duration of life, many patients decline care at major cancer centers and seek out smaller settings that provide complementary therapies.