A questionnaire study comprising 854 cancer patients in the Umeå health care region and covering the 10-year period, 1987-96, showed only a few cancer patients to use alternative medicine treatment for their disease. As compared with 19.4 per cent of 144 residents selected from the population register who answered the questionnaire in 1987, 16.8 per cent of the cancer patients reported using alternative treatments in 1987, 14.4 per cent in 1990, and 16.4 per cent in 1996. The commonest forms of alternative medicine used were chiropractic and acupuncture, and the majority of treatments were for pain in the muscles or musculoskeletal system.