CAM summary manual

Introduction

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is frequently used by cancer patients in all countries. However, there are significant gaps in how much we know about the safety and efficacy of CAMs. There is also a lack of information about the legal situation regarding CAMs across European countries, as well as prevalence data concerning the use of interventions in this frequently changing field.

The CAM-Cancer project (set-up phase Oct. 02 - Sept. 05) is funded by the European Commission within the framework of the "Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources" program. It aims to improve evidence-based cancer care in Europe by:

  • Developing and sustaining a network of experts in the field of CAM research.
  • Providing summarised and synthesized information about the efficacy and safety of complementary and alternative medicines used in cancer. These ‘CAM summaries’ will cover a wide range of CAM topics.
  • Ensuring that the best available research evidence concerning CAM interventions is presented in a way which is accessible and usable to health care professionals.
  • Ensuring that CAM summaries are written in an independent and non-judgementalway to maximise their use amongst health professionals and the general public.
  • Conducting Cochrane systematic reviews on topics including selenium for treatment, selenium for prevention, laetrile and thymus.
  • Conducting non-Cochrane systematic reviews on CAM for breast cancer and quality of life assessment in CAM for cancer.
  • Producing an overview of legal issues relating to CAMs in Europe.
  • Producing an overview of the prevalence of CAM use in cancer patients in Europe.
  • Authoring guidance which documents the processes used to produce evidencebased summaries and systematic reviews for CAMs in cancer.
  • Build an accessible, usable and reliable web site to host the various publications detailed above: www.cam-cancer.org The web site also features an eCommunity to encourage discussion amongst researchers, policy makers, health professionals and the general public. It will be accessible by invitation only until October 2005.

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