Recurrence of Breast Cancer After Primary Treatment: A Matched Comparison Study of Disease-Free Survival in Women Who Do and Do Not Receive Adjunctive Naturopathic Oncology Care

Abstract

Purpose: To compare disease free survival experienced by women who received usual oncologic care compared to a cohort of women who received naturopathic oncology care in addition to usual care. Methods: Women with breast cancer who received naturopathic oncology (NO) care in Western Washington State (WA) (N = 176) were recruited to a prospective study of clinical health-related quality of life outcomes and then matched to women who received usual care (UC) only (N = 334). Results: Among 510 women with breast cancer stages 1 to 3, a total of 50 women (10%) experienced a disease-free survival (DFS) ending event within the observation period; 23 (6.8% of those in the UC cohort, and 27 (15.3% of those in the NO cohort (P