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Effects of Herbal Medicine Use on Adherence to Conventional Anticancer Drugs | European Journal ...

Background: Herbal medicines are often used in conjunction with traditional anticancer medications for cancer patients. This may lead to lower adherence to traditional anti-cancer medications, as well as unpredictable side effects and unknown drug-herb interactions. This could lead to poor health results in the long run. The aim of this study was to see how the use of herbal medicines affects adherence to conventional anti-cancer drugs, to find out how many patients use both conventional and herbal anti-cancer drugs, and to identify the most popular herbal medicines used alongside conventional anti-cancer drugs by patients at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital's Oncology unit. Methods and Findings: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the oncology clinic of Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital found in Mbarara district, Uganda. Data was collected between 20th March and 20th April 2019 from 122 participants who met the inclusion criteria with subsequent consenting. Our primary outcome was adherence and secondary outcome was to investigate whether cancer patients use herbal medicines alongside conventional anti-cancer drugs. Our study had 122 patients most of them belonging to the Banyankole tribe, 75 (61.5%) being males. Of the 72 (59.02%) patients who used herbal medicine, 40 (55.56%) were males and 66.67% of the herbal users reported relief from herbal medicines. Aloe Vera was the most commonly used herb. Most of the patients 77 (63.1%) showed high adherence, this was greater in the non-herbal users than in the herbal users (COR=1.62) though this was not significant (p=0.399). Conclusion: The majority of cancer patients are expected to use at least one herb over the course of their lives. There was no important connection between herbal medicine use and adherence to traditional anti-cancer medications, according to the findings. The large number of people who use herbal medicines necessitates further research into the topic in order to provide more knowledge that can help improve cancer care outcomes.

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