Table 3.
Population characteristics of patients with and without one or more identified herb–drug or food–drug interaction (HFDI) classified as probable
| HFDI classified as ‘probable’ |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | No | Yes | P value | ||
| n | 95 | 79 (83.2) | 16 (16.8) | ||
| Population characteristics | |||||
| Age | Median (IQR) | 55.8 (16.1) | 56.3 (16.8) | 53.9 (13.5) | 0.606 |
| Gender | Female | 43 (55.1) | 32 (74.4) | 11 (25.6) | 0.344 |
| Male | 35 (44.9) | 30 (85.7) | 5 (14.3) | ||
| Data collection modalities | |||||
| Supervision of a health care | Supervised | 34 (35.8) | 29 (85.3) | 5 (14.7) | 0.897 |
| professional | Unsupervised | 61 (64.2) | 50 (82) | 11 (18) | |
| Version of the application | Version 1 | 26 (27.4) | 25 (96.2) | 1 (3.8) | 0.077 |
| Version 2 | 69 (72.6) | 54 (78.3) | 15 (21.7) | ||
| Site | 1—Oncology—daycare hospital | 82 (86.3) | 71 (86.6) | 11 (13.4) | 0.019 |
| 2—Hematology—nurse | 12 (12.6) | 8 (66.7) | 4 (33.3) | ||
| 3—Radiotherapy—scanner | 1 (1.1) | 0 (0) | 1 (100) | ||
| Cancer and treatments | |||||
| Number of anticancer treatments Median (IQR) | 1.8 (1.0) | 1.7 (0.9) | 2.1 (1.1) | 0.144 | |
| Systemic cancer treatments | Chemotherapy | 58 (61.1) | 48 (82.8) | 10 (17.2) | |
| IV targeted therapy | 30 (31.6) | 24 (80) | 6 (20) | ||
| Oral targeted therapy | 12 (12.6) | 8 (66.7) | 4 (33.3) | ||
| Hormone therapy | 6 (6.3) | 5 (83.3) | 1 (16.7) | ||
| Immunotherapy | 8 (8.4) | 8 (100) | 0 (0) | ||
| Not identified | 12 (12.6) | 11 (91.7) | 1 (8.3) | ||
| Cancer type | Breast | 28 (29.5) | 23 (82.1) | 5 (17.9) | 0.103 |
| Gastrointestinal | 6 (6.3) | 6 (100) | 0 (0) | ||
| Gynecological | 10 (10.5) | 7 (70) | 3 (30) | ||
| Hematologic | 14 (14.7) | 8 (57.1) | 6 (42.9) | ||
| Head and neck | 8 (8.4) | 8 (100) | 0 (0) | ||
| Lung | 16 (16.8) | 15 (93.8) | 1 (6.2) | ||
| Urological | 4 (4.2) | 4 (100) | 0 (0) | ||
| Other | 8 (8.4) | 7 (87.5) | 1 (12.5) | ||
| Unknown | 1 (1.1) | 1 (100) | 0 (0) | ||
| Stage | Localized cancer | 28 (34.6) | 24 (85.7) | 4 (14.3) | 0.669 |
| Metastasized cancer | 48 (59.3) | 42 (87.5) | 6 (12.5) | ||
| Patient does not know | 5 (6.2) | 5 (100) | 0 (0) | ||
| Time since diagnosis | <6 months | 13 (20.0) | 9 (69.2) | 4 (30.8) | 0.545 |
| 6 months to 1 year | 15 (23.1) | 11 (73.3) | 4 (26.7) | ||
| 1 to 2 years | 11 (16.9) | 10 (90.9) | 1 (9.1) | ||
| 2 to 5 years | 14 (21.5) | 12 (85.7) | 2 (14.3) | ||
| >5 years | 12 (18.5) | 8 (66.7) | 4 (33.3) | ||
| Surgery | No | 49 (51.6) | 41 (83.7) | 8 (16.3) | 0.249 |
| Planned | 6 (6.3) | 5 (83.3) | 1 (16.7) | ||
| Yes (<1 year) | 19 (20.0) | 13 (68.4) | 6 (31.6) | ||
| Yes (>1 year) | 9 (9.5) | 9 (100) | 0 (0) | ||
| Patient does not know | 12 (12.6) | 11 (91.7) | 1 (8.3) | ||
| Radiotherapy | No | 35 (36.8) | 29 (82.9) | 6 (17.1) | 0.355 |
| Ongoing | 6 (6.3) | 4 (66.7) | 2 (33.3) | ||
| Planned | 12 (12.6) | 11 (91.7) | 1 (8.3) | ||
| Yes (<1 year) | 23 (24.2) | 17 (73.9) | 6 (26.1) | ||
| Yes (>1 year) | 8 (8.4) | 7 (87.5) | 1 (12.5) | ||
| Patient does not know | 11 (11.6) | 11 (100) | 0 (0) | ||
| Smoking habits | Tobacco | 14 (18.2) | 11 (78.6) | 3 (21.4) | 1 |
| Cannabis | 2 (2.8) | 1 (50.0) | 1 (50.0) | 0.38 | |
| HFDS and alternative medicines | |||||
| Oral alternative medicine | Phytotherapy—herb extracts | 19 (20.4) | 14 (73.7) | 5 (26.3) | 0.306 |
| Infusions | 20 (33.9) | 16 (80) | 4 (20.0) | 0.424 | |
| Essential oil (aromatherapy) | 6 (6.5) | 3 (50.0) | 3 (50.0) | 0.061 | |
| Dietary supplements | 22 (23.7) | 18 (81.8) | 4 (18.2) | 1 | |
| Homeopathy | 12 (12.9) | 11 (91.7) | 1 (8.3) | 0.684 | |
| Other alternative medicine | Acupuncture | 8 (66.7) | 6 (75) | 2 (25) | 0.721 |
| Hypnose | 1 (8.3) | 1 (100) | 0 (0) | ||
| Qi gong | 1 (8.3) | 1 (100) | 0 (0) | ||
| Reiki | 2 (16.7) | 1 (50) | 1 (50) | ||
| Food habits | Green tea | 17 (26.6) | 9 (52.9) | 8 (47.1) | 0.016 |
| Coffee (>2 cups a day) | 39 (60.9) | 32 (82.1) | 7 (17.9) | 0.235 | |
| Licorice (roots or sweets) | 1 (1.6) | 0 | 1 (100) | 0.234 | |
| Soy | 3 (4.7) | 3 (100) | 0 | 1 | |
| Grapefruit | 5 (7.8) | 2 (40.0) | 3 (60.0) | 0.079 | |
| Pomelo | 3 (4.7) | 1 (33.3) | 2 (66.7) | 0.134 | |
| Bitter orange (Seville orange) | 10 (15.6) | 10 (100) | 0 | 0.1 | |
| Cranberry | 3 (4.7) | 1 (33.3) | 2 (66.7) | 0.134 | |
| Patient reported at least | Yes | 74 (77.9) | 58 (78.4) | 16 (21.6) | 0.045 |
| one HFDS | No | 21 (22.1) | 21 (100) | 0 (0) | |
| Probable HFDI identified | Yes | 16 (16.8) | 0 (0) | 16 (100) | — |
| No | 79 (83.2) | 79 (100) | 0 (0) | ||
The population with an HFDI classified as probable was compared to the population without an HFDI using Wilcoxon test for quantitative values and Fisher’s exact test for categorical variables. Missing values (total n = 95): supervised: 0; version: 0; center: 0; age: 18; gender: 27; cancer type: 0; time since diagnosis: 30; stage: 14; surgery: 0; radiotherapy: 0; tobacco: 18; cannabis: 24; phytotherapy: 2; dietary supplements: 2; aromatherapy: 2; homeopathy: 2; infusions: 36; food habits: 31. P-values under 0.05 are in red and P-values between 0.05 and 0.1 are bold.
HFDI, herb and food–drug interaction; HFDS, herb, food and dietary supplements; IQR, interquartile range; IV, intravenous.