By Alicia Ault
CRYSTAL CITY, Va., Jun 13 (Reuters Health) - Dr. Stephen Straus, the
director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, said
Saturday that practitioners have to start proving scientifically that
alternative therapies work. Straus also noted that his agency has been given $70
million this fiscal year to help fund such studies.
"Our job, in fact, is to make a science out of complementary and alternative
medicine," said Straus, speaking to the estimated 1,200 attendees of the
Comprehensive Cancer Care 2000 meeting.
He described an ambitious agenda for the National Center, a division of the
National Institutes of Health (NIH). A wide-ranging program is needed to begin
addressing which complementary and alternative (CAM) practices work, and which
don't, Straus said, noting that more Americans are using CAM. And, he said,
"there is good reason to believe that some of these practices are effective."
He also said more insurers were paying for practices such as chiropractic,
acupuncture and massage, but for the wrong reasons. Their decisions have been
based on public pressure and state mandates--not science, Straus said.
The National Center is funding centers of excellence around the country,
which will conduct early safety and efficacy studies, determine how therapies
work, and teach CAM practitioners how to do more rigorous scientific research.
Centers funded so far include ones that will focus on cancer, asthma, arthritis,
pediatrics, addiction, chiropractic, aging, and cranio-facial health.
Centers on botanicals are also being funded, said Straus. These centers are
crucial because they will research how herbal products work, what are the active
and inactive ingredients, and find ways to standardize preparations so they can
reliably be used in clinical trials. Nonstandard herbal formulas are a concern,
said Straus, noting that many off-the-shelf remedies contain the wrong parts of
plants or may be adulterated, or have no expiration date.
He said most Americans don't seem to care. "Americans buy botanicals like
they buy wine--if the label looks pretty and it's expensive, they buy it,"
Straus commented.
The National Center's most ambitious effort currently is funding five large
clinical trials: St. John's wort to treat depression, which is completing
enrollment this week; acupuncture for osteoarthritis pain;
glucosamine/chondroitin sulfate for arthritis; shark cartilage for non-small
cell lung cancer; and the largest study ever of dementia, a 3,000-patient trial
of ginkgo biloba in people aged 75 and over.
That study will cost $16 million and run four years, Straus said.
The agency also hopes to increase funding of studies at its NIH campus and
grants to individual investigators with promising early studies, he said.
In cancer, the National Center will be getting input on promising new
research to fund from its 15-member Cancer Advisory Panel on Complementary and
Alternative Medicine.
