 Cancer Research UK warns that alternative treatments may interact with conventional treatment, may increase the side effects of medication, and can give people false hope.Survey data about how many cancer patients use alternative or complementary therapies vary from nation to nation as well as from region to region.A 2000 study published by the "European Journal of Cancer" evaluated a sample of 1023 women from a British cancer registry suffering from breast cancer and found that 22.4% had consulted with a practitioner of complementary therapies in the previous twelve months.