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Reddit offers real-world, unfiltered discussions that can reveal how patients perceive, categorize, and decide on supplements within oncology care. This study analyzes Reddit posts to identify themes about use goals, supplement types, and decision-making factors, informing clinical dialogue and safety considerations.",{"@graph":69,"@context":127},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":35,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/insights-on-supplement-use-during-cancer-care-from-online-reddit-conversations/346033/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/insights-on-supplement-use-during-cancer-care-from-online-reddit-conversations/346033.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Genevieve","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-09-22",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",12,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119,123],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"Why did the researchers analyze Reddit conversations about supplement use during cancer care?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"To access real-world, unfiltered patient discussions and better understand how patients perceive and use dietary supplements during treatment, which traditional research may not fully capture.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"How were the Reddit posts selected and analyzed in the study?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"Posts from the subreddit r/cancer between November 2010 and December 2022 that referenced dietary supplement use were identified with NLP, then a 10% random sample was qualitatively analyzed using directed content analysis.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"What supplement use goals and types appeared most often in the results?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"Posts were commonly inquiries (59%). Intended use was split between symptom management and cancer treatment, with vitamins being the most mentioned supplement category (38%).",{"name":124,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":125},"What implications does the study suggest for clinical encounters and further research?",{"text":126,"@type":114},"Clinicians should address supplement use during clinical encounters, and the findings highlight the need for further research to support safe and effective integration of supplements into oncology care.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":129,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":131,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":133,"site_id":62},346033,1790200956,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":136},{"doc_id":133,"user_id":137,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":138,"doc_module":4,"category_id":34,"category_name":35,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":139,"file_id":140,"file_url":141,"file_type":142,"file_size":143,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":39,"language":144,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":145,"faqs":146,"seo_title":147,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":148,"read_time":46},1374391974585,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","Waissengrin et al. BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies (2026) 26:256  \n[https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-026-05411-5](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12906-026-05411-5)  \nBMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies  \nRESEARCH Open Access  \nInsights on supplement use during cancer care from online Reddit conversations  \nBarliz Waissengrin1, Karen O’Connor2, Celina H. Shirazipour 1,3, Flores Amaro Ivan4, Karen L. Reckamp 1, Graciela Gonzalez-Hernandez3† and Jane C. Figueiredo 1,4*†  \nAbstract  \nBackground Dietary supplement use is common among patients with cancer, yet limited data exist on how patients perceive and use these products during treatment. Traditional research methods may not fully capture patient-driven motivations and experiences. Social media platforms such as Reddit provide a unique opportunity to examine realworld, unfiltered discussions about supplement use in the oncology setting.  \nMethods Posts from the subreddit r/cancer published between November 2010 and December 2022 that referenced dietary supplement use were identified using natural language processing (NLP) techniques. A 10% random sample (n = 155) of the identified posts (n = 1,488) was analyzed qualitatively using directed content analysis. Posts were categorized by purpose (seeking vs. reporting use), intended use (treatment of cancer vs. symptom management), and supplement type (vitamin, mineral, other) . Frequencies of themes related to supplement use, treatment goals, and decision-making motivations were assessed.  \nResults Among users who specified their cancer type, breast, lung, and colorectal cancers were most frequently mentioned. 59% of posts were inquiries about supplement use, and 41% described personal experiences. Intended use was evenly divided between symptom management (51%) and cancer treatment (49%) . Vitamins were the most commonly mentioned supplement category (38%) . Reported motivations included managing fatigue, nausea, pain, and emotional distress. Discussions frequently reflected attempts to identify supportive strategies outside of conventional medical care.  \nConclusions Reddit represents a valuable, underutilized resource for understanding cancer patients’ perspectiveson dietary supplement use. Insights derived from these online discussions highlight the importance of addressing supplement use in clinical encounters and underscore the need for further research to guide safe and effective integration of supplements into oncology care.  \nKeywords Dietary Supplements, Cancer, Social Media, Reddit, Qualitative Research  \n†Graciela Gonzalez-Hernandez and Jane C. Figueiredo contributed equally to this work.  \n*Correspondence:  \nJane C. Figueiredo  \n[Jane.Figueiredo@cshs.org](Jane.Figueiredo@cshs.org)  \n1Department of Medicine, Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, 8700 Beverly Blvd Suite AC1072, Los Angeles, CA 90048, USA  \n2Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA 3David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA  \n4Department of Computational Biomedicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA  \n© The Author(s) 2026. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article","cbCaibTA81ZkgyJl","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaibTA81ZkgyJl","pdf",1150135,"English","# Abstract\n## Background\n## Methods\n## Results\n## Conclusions\n# Backgrounds","[{\"question\":\"Why did the researchers analyze Reddit conversations about supplement use during cancer care?\",\"answer\":\"To access real-world, unfiltered patient discussions and better understand how patients perceive and use dietary supplements during treatment, which traditional research may not fully capture.\"},{\"question\":\"How were the Reddit posts selected and analyzed in the study?\",\"answer\":\"Posts from the subreddit r/cancer between November 2010 and December 2022 that referenced dietary supplement use were identified with NLP, then a 10% random sample was qualitatively analyzed using directed content analysis.\"},{\"question\":\"What supplement use goals and types appeared most often in the results?\",\"answer\":\"Posts were commonly inquiries (59%). Intended use was split between symptom management and cancer treatment, with vitamins being the most mentioned supplement category (38%).\"},{\"question\":\"What implications does the study suggest for clinical encounters and further research?\",\"answer\":\"Clinicians should address supplement use during clinical encounters, and the findings highlight the need for further research to support safe and effective integration of supplements into oncology care.\"}]","Insights on supplement use during cancer care from online Reddit conversations | PDF",1790059768]