does prognosis or cancer symptoms predict usage?
Any interactions between chemotherapeutic drugs and dietary supplements (DS) are a concern for oncologists. This study sought to obtain pilot data about the prevalence of consumption of DS (which include vitamin/mineral supplements [VS] and herbal supplements [HS]) among patients undergoing chemotherapy and to assess the relationship between DS consumption and both cancer prognosis and secondary cancer symptoms. In this pilot study, data on demographics, DS usage, presence of secondary cancer symptoms, and cancer diagnosis and stage were collected on 100 consecutive patients with gastrointestinal cancer and 40 with breast cancer who were receiving active chemotherapy from April 2004 to July 2004. Overall prevalence of DS consumption was 52.52% +/- 8.3% (VS,48.2% +/- 8.31%; HS, 23.74% +/- 7.07%). Of HS users, 42.42% +/- 16.86% used multiple HS. Factors significantly associated with higher consumption of HS were female gender and presence of metastasis, fatigue, and cancer pain. No signi
