Reviews and opinions
WHO: Global report on Traditional & Complementary Medicine (T&CM) 2019
New WHO report on Traditional and Complementary Medicine
EUROCAM was invited by WHO to participate in a meeting at the WHO Headquarters in Geneva on 21 May 2019 that was dedicated to the official release of the “WHO Global Report on Traditional and Complementary Medicine 2019”.
The report is the most comprehensive one on Traditional & Complementary Medicine (T&CM), with 179 of the 194 Member States officially contributing information, capturing the three phases of progress made by Member States, covering not only policy and regulation but also products, practices and practitioners of T&CM, and it is the most current and up-to-date report, based on information from most Member States across the six WHO regions..
The Global Report and other documents related to Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine can be downloaded from the WHO website. https://www.who.int/traditional-complementary-integrative-medicine/en/
The meeting agenda can be found here. https://cam-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/WHO-Side-event-on-TCI-Contributions-to-UHC-21May2019.pdf
CAM 2020 - The contribution of Complementary and Alternative Medicine to sustainable healthcare in Europe. (Full text: pdf)
The booklet "CAM 2020 - The contribution of Complementary and Alternative Medicine to sustainable healthcare in Europe" provides information about CAM scoping its current practice and availability as well as its potential future role across the EU. In addition, it highlights priority policy action areas to enable CAM to fulfil its significant potential to contribute to the healthcare of EU citizens
The role of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in reducing the problem of antimicrobal resistance (November 2015) (Full text: pdf)
A new EUROCAM brochure concerning antimicrobial resistance. In a meeting with the EU commission, DG SANCO, last week EUROCAM handed over this brochure. EUROCAM recommends that the potential of CAM in reducing the problem of AMR is given serious consideration and that further research is carried out in this area to determine in which conditions, both in human and veterinary healthcare, specific CAM modalities are particularly effective.
Complementary & Alternative Medicine: Current status and potential in European healthcare. EUROCAM position paper 2012. (Full text: pdf)
The role of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) in the context of Cancer EUROCAM position paper 2012. (Full text pdf)
Model Guidelines CAM Practice (CAMDOC 2008) pdf
Integrative Medicine in General Practice (CAMDOC 2011) pdf
Towards Integrative Medicine in Europe CAMDOC-ECIM 2011 pdf
OPINION
Complementary Medicine, Refusal of Conventional Cancer Therapy, and Survival Among Patients With Curable Cancers. Skyler B. Johnson, Henry S. Park, Cary P. Gross et al. James B. JAMA Oncol. Published online July 19, 2018. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2018.2487 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/article-abstract/2687972
In a retrospective observational study with data from the National Cancer Database on 1 901 815 patients diagnosed with nonmetastatic breast, prostate, lung, or colorectal cancer were investigated whether the use of complementary medicine (CM) was associated with adherence to conventional cancer treatment (CCT) and overall survival. Use of CM was defined as “Other-Unproven: Cancer treatments administered by nonmedical personnel” in addition to at least 1 CCT modality, defined as surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and/or hormone therapy. Statistical analysis of the data of 258 patients in the CM group and 1 901 557 patients in the control group (no CM used) showed that the CM group were more likely to refuse other conventional cancer treatment and had a higher risk of death than no complementary medicine.
Comment (Peter Zimmermann, MD PhD): The CM group was very small compared to controls and characterized only patients who admitted their use of CM. A significant number of silent CM users may hide in both groups. In addition, many CM users chose CM because they experience more side effects from CCT compared than others. This may also may influence survival. Basic knowledge and training of oncologists in at least some of the evidence based CM modalities would be beneficial to allow the integration of CM into CCT in an individually patient tailoired way. So patients would not have to chose between CM and CCT but rather could use both.
