Complementary and supportive approaches

Twelve weeks of acupuncture reduced aromatase-inhibitor joint pain more than sham or waitlist, with benefit at one year.

Cognitive behavioural therapy for fatigue and distress has durable randomised evidence.

Structured therapy for insomnia beats sleeping tablets and lasts; digital versions work.

Compression and decongestive therapy work; weight lifting reduces flare-ups rather than causing them.

Aerobic and resistance training is the best-evidenced complementary approach for fatigue, fitness and, in colon cancer, survival.

Supervised exercise during chemotherapy reduces fatigue and helps people complete their planned doses.

Eight-week mindfulness programmes reduce anxiety and depression during and after treatment in many trials.

Ice chips around bolus fluorouracil or melphalan roughly halve mouth ulcers.

Low-level light prevents severe mucositis in head and neck radiotherapy and transplant conditioning.

Cooling the scalp during taxane-based chemotherapy preserved hair in about half of women in a randomised trial; weaker with anthracyclines.

Three years of coached exercise after colon cancer chemotherapy reduced recurrence and death in a randomised trial.

NHS wigs in the UK, 'cranial prosthesis' prescriptions and free wig banks in the US.

Cochrane-level evidence for quality of life, fatigue and sleep in breast cancer; recommended for anxiety and fatigue during treatment.

P6 stimulation adds a small reduction in vomiting on top of antiemetics; wristband trials mixed.

Acupuncture during head and neck radiotherapy reduced dry mouth at one year in a two-country randomised trial.

Matched gabapentin in one trial with fewer side effects; sham-controlled results inconsistent.

Standardised Wisconsin ginseng improved fatigue during treatment in a 364-patient placebo-controlled trial.

Approved lash-growth drop with a randomised trial including post-chemotherapy patients.

Dronabinol and nabilone approved for refractory nausea since 1985; modern antiemetics are first line.

Reduces procedural pain and anxiety; halved hot flushes in a small trial without a sham arm.

Cooling or compression during taxane infusions protects nails and may protect nerves; small trials.

Largest trial positive for acute nausea, others negative; safe for most, bleeding caution.

Oral glutamine suggested for mucositis in head and neck chemoradiation; not for neuropathy.

Cochrane moderate-quality evidence for radiation proctitis, cystitis and jaw necrosis.

Immediate relief of pain and mood in a 380-patient trial in advanced cancer; effects short-lived.

Regrowth in most patients with persistent or endocrine-therapy hair thinning in dermatology series; faster regrowth in an early randomised trial.

Cochrane review of 81 trials: less anxiety and pain, low to moderate certainty.

Better mood and coping in randomised trials; no survival effect when properly tested.

May reduce treatment diarrhoea (low certainty); avoid in neutropenia and with central lines.

Approved in Japan; meta-analyses of Japanese trials show a modest survival gain in gastric and colorectal cancer, untested elsewhere.

Free, self-administered techniques with small consistent effects on anxiety and anticipatory nausea.

Improves fatigue, sleep and balance; non-inferior to CBT-I for insomnia in one trial.

Pilot trials are encouraging but too small to conclude anything; larger trials recruiting.

Five decades, sixty registered trials, no published completed result; severe salt imbalance.

Pleasant, but no added benefit over massage alone in Cochrane review.

Yoga component has evidence; herbal and mineral remedies do not, and some contain heavy metals.

Phase 3 pain trials negative, no human anticancer evidence, interaction and immunotherapy concerns.

Strong in a dish, barely absorbed in people; no randomised anticancer evidence, interaction potential.

Three small trials; Cochrane could not judge benefit beyond that of exercise.

A century of sales, no controlled trial, no laboratory activity.

Randomised signal on radiological response in one trial; adherence collapsed and no survival data.

Cell-culture data and anecdotes only; liver injury reported.

No effect on weight or survival in Cochrane review; safe within nutritional support.

No consistent prevention effect in Cochrane review; extracts can injure the liver.

Oral vitamin C definitively ineffective; intravenous trials small, one randomised phase 2 awaiting confirmation.

Inert remedies; Cochrane found no convincing evidence for treatment side effects.

Small single-centre trials positive; guidelines could not recommend either way.

Feasible for months but no trial shows longer survival.

Immune activity in small studies; Cochrane found no evidence to support reishi as treatment.

Survival claims rest on one group's unblinded trials; reasonable short-term sleep aid.

No reliable survival benefit; best-quality trials negative; possible harm signal in melanoma.

A structured foot massage with no anatomical basis; weak guideline mention for general pain.

Real and sham sessions perform alike; harmless as rest.

Hundreds of small, poorly reported trials; interaction and contamination risks.

The 25,871-person VITAL trial found no reduction in cancer incidence.

Three randomised trials: no benefit, more toxicity.

Randomised phase 3 in lung cancer: no survival difference.

Choosing alternative medicine instead of treatment: 2.5 times the risk of death overall, 5.7 times in breast cancer (JNCI 2018).

Corrosive paste that scars and misses tumour; melanomas have spread under it.

Antioxidant supplements during chemotherapy were associated with more recurrence and death; tell your team what you take.

No controlled evidence; coffee enemas have killed.

No effect in the NCI study; releases cyanide.

Halves exposure to irinotecan and many oral anticancer drugs; avoid during treatment.