when complementary and alternative medicine intervenes in the conventional treatment of cancer patients: ethical analysis of a clinical case

The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is prevalent among cancer patients as they are known to use at least one type of CAM (1, 2). In most cases, patients use CAM treatments during the conventional treatment course to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy and improve their quality of life. However, in some cases, CAM treatments replace conventional therapy immediately following the cancer diagnosis and after multiple conventional treatment stages and relapses (3). Cancer patients visit traditional medicine practitioners despite the presence of conventional treatment options due to reasons such as fear, denial of illness, or death of close relatives following cancer (4). In the current study, two patients who chose to undergo traditional treatment after the cancer diagnosis was made are introduced. An ethical analysis of these cases will determine the existing ethical challenges in this area.