Prayer and blessings focused for healing is the most popular complementary intervention in a paediatric oncology unit in Greece.

PURPOSE Increasing numbers of children with cancer are using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies. Our aim was to estimate the rate of use, the beliefs of users and non-users and factors related with the use of CAM among Greek families. METHODS A self-reported questionnaire was given to parents of 184 children with cancer. We assessed the rate of use, types of CAM therapies and factors potentially associated with the use of CAM. RESULTS Based on the 110 questionnaires which were completed (59.8% of the families), 23 families (21%) had used at least one complementary treatment. The most common forms were: spiritual healing/prayer/blessings 18/23 (78%), art therapies 4, dietary supplements 3, massage 3, homeopathy 2, and herbals 2. The reasons given for use included: making the child stronger 17/23 (48%, hope of stopping the cancerous process 11/23 (49%), and coping with side effects 6/23 (26%). Among the reasons given by the parents for not using CAM therapies the most common (84%) was the effective conventional treatment and, therefore, there was no need for CAM use. Another 24% reported that were unaware of these "alternative" and "complementary" therapies and a further 7% had considered using them but finally they didn't. In bivariate analysis, the use of CAM was not associated either with age, sex, nationality, education or occupation of the parents at the time of the survey, or with diagnosis, mode of therapy or age of the child at diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS The use of CAM therapies by Greek families for their children with cancer does not appear to be very popular, although the experiences of those who did use them were generally positive.