Survey of the Literature Concerning Efficacy of Health Foods Believed to Have Anticancer Effects in In-Patients

-Activity of Aichi Hospital Pharmacists Society,Oncology Study Group-

Abstract

When pharmacists provide drug guidance to in-patients,they are often asked about health foods such patients are regularly taking in expectation of anti-cancer effects.However,pharmacists cannot always answer these questions based on scientific evidence.
To further evaluate the efficacy of health foods for this purpose,we did a survey of the literature concerning 5 frequently used health foods said to have anticancer effects using the PubMed and Ichushi search services,obtaining 1,300 papers from the former and 1,142 papers from the latter.However among them,we could not find any providing data from randomized controlled trials and thus there was no clear scientific evidence,though some of the papers noted an improvement in the quality of life of patients.
In conclusion,when pharmacists provide guidance on health foods to patients and their families,it is important for them to collect detailed information and evaluate them on a scientific basis.