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

Ali, Nasreen BSc MA PhD
Hussain-Gambles, Mahvash BSc MA PhD

Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Research in Primary Care
Teaching Fellow, Clinical Trials Research Unit
University of Leeds, UK

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

None.

ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE

Nasreen Ali, Centre for Research in Primary Care, University of Leeds, 71–75 Clarendon Road, Leeds LS2 9PL, UK. Tel: +44 (0)113 343 6967. Email: [email protected]

Received 15 September 2004

Accepted 3 March 2005

Diversity in Health and Social Care 2(1):p 41-45, 2005.

Complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) form an increasing part of the cancer management programmes for some patients, despite the continuing marginalised status of such medicines within the Western medical model. Research highlights the use of CAM among South Asian settlers in the UK who also constitute a group prone to rising rates of cancer. This paper argues that it is important to establish the exact parameters and patterns of the use of CAM and its relationships to allopathic medicine among South Asian patients with cancer, in the light of patient-centred re-evaluations of the Western medical model as a way of investigating the impact of the relationship on health outcomes.