More than 80 percent of local cancer patients regularly take dietary supplements in the hope of increasing their chances of recovery, but a survey found that some turn to such products in place of cancer medications, the Hope Foundation for Cancer Care said yesterday.
The survey, conducted between Sept. 5 and Oct. 24 last year, found that 82.1 percent of respondents use nutritional supplements, taking an average of 4.3 kinds of supplement, the foundation said.
Seven percent of respondents reported taking at least 10 dietary supplements, the foundation said.
“The poll shows that the number or types of supplements a patient takes is directly proportional to the severity of his or her illness, as evidenced by the fact patients with stage-four cancers take approximately five kinds of nutritional supplements, compared with an average of 3.5 among individuals with stage-one cancer,” foundation chairman Wang Cheng-hsu (王正旭) told a press conference in Taipei.
Wang, who is director of the Keelung Chang Gung Cancer Center, said the most common dietary supplements among cancer patients are nutritional drinks, followed by vitamins and glutamine.
About 35 percent of respondents said they take nutritional supplements to strengthen their immune system, while 31 percent used such products to increase their physical strength and 20.4 percent to assuage the side effects of cancer treatments.
While 4.9 percent of respondents said they believed dietary supplements could help prevent a recurrence of their cancer, 1.2 percent thought such products could cure cancer, Wang said.
“More alarming is that 37 percent chose not to inform their physicians about the nutritional supplements they are taking, because they thought the doctors might not fully understand the efficacy of their supplements [31.9 percent], the doctors did not need to know [27.7] or the doctors might talk them out of taking the products [14.9],” Wang said.
Chen Chao-tzu (陳昭姿), director of the Koo Foundation Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center’s Center for Advancement of Nursing Education, said many people think that since dietary supplements are categorized as food, they are harmless and free of side effects.
“Such products still have side effects, but it may take longer for them to manifest themselves. Some dietary supplements might interact with cancer drugs, or even affect chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatments,” Chen said.
The survey collected 375 valid samples. The majority, or 45.1 percent, of the respondents had breast cancer, followed by lymphoma, colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer and lung cancer.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS