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Alternative medicine
By Mayo Clinic staffWhen people learn you have cancer, they may offer advice or tell you about someone they know who had breast cancer that was cured with an alternative treatment. It can be tempting to consider alternative treatments, especially when your options may be waning. However, no alternative treatments have proved to be effective cancer treatments.
Even when people decide to try an alternative therapy, many neglect to tell their doctors. But, it's important to let your doctor know about everything that you're taking to prevent any dangerous adverse reactions. Another concern about alternative treatments is that some people delay getting potentially lifesaving treatments to try an alternative first.
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- Breast cancer. American Cancer Society. http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/cid/documents/webcontent/003090-pdf.pdf. Accessed March 17, 2011.
- Punglia RS, et al. Local therapy and survival in breast cancer. New England Journal of Medicine. 2007;356:2399.
- Hayes DF. Overview of treatment for locally advanced, recurrent, and metastatic breast cancer. http://uptodateonline.com/index. Accessed March 19, 2011.
- What you need to know about breast cancer. National Cancer Institute. http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/wyntk/breast/AllPages/Print. Accessed March 19, 2011.
- Living with uncertainty: The fear of cancer recurrence. American Cancer Society http://www.cancer.org/docroot/MLT/content/MLT_4_1x_Living_With_Uncertainty_-_The_Fear_of_Cancer_Recurrence.asp. Accessed March 19, 2011.
- Hirsch A, et al. Management of locoregional recurrence of breast cancer after mastectomy. http://www.uptodateonline.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 19, 2011.
- Debled M et al.Prognostic factors of early distant recurrence in hormone receptor-positive, postmenopausal breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant tamoxifen therapy: Results of a retrospective analysis. Cancer. 2007;109:2197.
- Rausch SM, et al. Complementary and alternative medicine: Use and disclosure in radiation oncology community practice. Supportive Care Cancer. 2011;19:521.
- Pruthi S (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. April 11, 2011.
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