Introduction: Although more than 300 000 children and adolescents worldwide are diagnosed with cancer yearly, little research has been conducted investigating how healthcare providers consider risk and patient safety connected with supportive care (including complementary and alternative medicine [CAM]) in this age group. This study aimed to explore how different healthcare providers perceive and evaluate risk when patients combine supportive care and conventional medicine in clinical practice and how they communicate and inform parents about the use of these modalities.
Materials and methods: In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 healthcare providers with expertise in treating pediatric oncology patients from 5 countries. Systematic content analysis was conducted using Nvivo 1.61.
Results: The analysis resulted in 3 themes and 8 subthemes. Generally, participants were cautious about implementing unproven new modalities or therapies when recommending supporting care modalities to parents of children and adolescents with cancer. The most important criterion when recommending a modality was evidence for safety based on a risk/benefit evaluation. Negative interactions with conventional medicine were avoided by using the half-life of a drug approach (the time it takes for the amount of a drug's active substance in the body to reduce by half). For patients with severe symptoms, less invasive modalities were used (ear seeds instead of ear needling). To enhance safety, participants practiced open and egalitarian communication with parents.
Conclusion: Healthcare providers reported using a variety of approaches to achieve a safe practice when parents wanted to combine supportive care and conventional cancer treatment. They emphasized that these modalities should be foremost safe and not become an extra burden for the patients. Providers highlighted patient-centered care to meet the individual's specific health needs and desired health outcomes. A lack of national and regional standardized training programs for supportive care in pediatric oncology was considered a hazard to patient safety.
Keywords: CAM; communication; healthcare providers; integrative medicine; pediatric oncology; qualitative; safety; supportive care modalities.