General
The aim of a CAM Cancer summary is to synthesize and summarise the best available evidence that exists about a specific intervention when used in the prevention, treatment or supportive/palliative care of cancer. CAM Cancer summaries address three main questions about a treatment: What is it? Does it work? Is it safe? The information is thus presented as background information (treatment description, background and prevalence; ingredients/ components; alleged indications; application and dosage; mechanisms of action; legal issues and costs), an appraisal of the evidence of efficacy, and comprehensive safety information. All summaries are fully referenced.
CAM Cancer summaries aim to be
- complete and comprehensive
- topical
- using an unbiased tone
- user-oriented.
The primary audience for CAM Cancer summaries are healthcare professionals and the summaries are written with this readership in mind. CAM Cancer does not provide any recommendations for treatments or products.
CAM Cancer summary guidelines and templates
CAM Cancer summaries follow systematic review methodology for their evidence synthesis. An experienced information specialist conducts systematic literature searches in Medline and the Cochrane Library; the searches are fully documented. Authors critically appraise and summarize the research literature following the guidelines and templates provided by CAM Cancer. The editorial team ensures that summaries comply with these before they are peer reviewed. A template of CAM Cancer summaries with the main guidelines can be viewed here. The full guidelines and templates as well as editorial processes are set out in the CAM Cancer summary manual.
