Medicinas complementarias y alternativas en el tratamiento del cáncer Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Cancer Treatment

Complementary and alternative treatments play an ever increasing role in cancer therapy, to the extent that the most important medical centres have decided to include them in the list of services offered to their patients. This article reviews the global panorama on the subject, and it concludes that it is necessary to evaluate the possible beneficial effects of these alternatives cancer medicines as eventual treatment and coadjuvant or palliative care. Although popular beliefs hold that these therapies produce no side effects, some evidences suggest that they might be harmful. It is therefore imperative to carry out trials which not only quantify the use of such therapies, but also gauge their possible harmful side effects.