A new study has revealed that people suffering from cancer under age 65 are more likely to search alternatives drugs to ease their symptoms and side-effects of treatment than other older people.

Dr. Jun Mao, Director of integrated oncology at the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania and lead author of the study, said the study suggested that baby boomers explored more alternative therapies than their parents. According to Mao, "It is due to a social change in the U. S. in the 60s and 70s with a big social movement toward things like a macrobiotic diet and yoga that made these things more mainstream".

Mao and other researchers of the study examined people with breast, lung and gastrointestinal tumors. Those people were treated at the cancer center between June 2010 and September 2011. They tried to figure out whether the people used complimentary or alternative medicine therapies since the beginning of the treatment.

About 969 patients who completed the survey by Mao and colleagues were 59 years old on average. The survey included more than 60% woman who were college-educated. According to 59% of the patients, they tried minimum one form of complimentary or alternative medicine therapy since starting treatment.

The female patients aged 65 or younger explored complementary or alternative treatment. The researchers posted the report of the survey online on May 26 in the journal Cancer. In the study, the researchers only included patients with three types of cancer. According to the researchers, the study was not designed to assess how often the patients might use alternative or complimentary therapies.

Barrie Cassileth, founding chief of the integrative medicine program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said the study did not differentiate between alternative drugs and complimentary therapies that have been found to relieve symptoms.