Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use among South Asian patients with cancer in Britain

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is attracting considerable attention within the context of mainstream healthcare provision in Britain. It has a one-year prevalence of around 20% (Ernst, 2000), with 74% of the British public supporting its availability on theNHS (Vincent and Furnham, 1996). The House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology estimated there to be 15 million users of CAM nationwide (House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology, 2000). The term CAM is used to refer to a broad range of healthcare practices that have, until recently, remained outside the conventional Western medical model and thus continue to be marginalised by the dominant healthcare system but are, nevertheless, used by patients to supplement their healthcare (Vincent and Furnham, 1998). This paper begins by explaining some of the terminology used in relation to CAM. The marginalised status of CAM in Western medicine is then discussed with particular reference to the implications for South Asian people who have cancer. Such patients may combine the use of CAMwithWesternmedicine. This raises a number of possibilities, including the risk of adverse interaction between medicines and unwanted side-effects, which have so far been under-researched. The paper concludes by setting an agenda for research in this field.