Exploring the integrated options
The demand for integrated cancer care is certainly on the rise. This is due to the promise of formulating treatment strategies that combine the best of both conventional modalities and holistic healing therapies, to maximize both quality and duration of life.
It is important that you start by understanding the different treatment approaches in cancer care.
CONVENTIONAL THERAPY employs surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, etc. It is essentially a destructive way to deal with cancer, as it aims at destroying the cancer cells. These destructive strategies can be very powerful in eliminating cancer cells, but the collateral damage can range from mild to severe.
Without a doubt, there is a role for these modalities and the treating clinician must be aware of its applications and limitations. Too often these modalities are offered as the only option, and this is unacceptable and ignorant.
There are many websites that you can look up on the different approaches above.
ALTERNATIVE THERAPY is a treatment system that suggests the replacement of conventional therapies using alternative solutions premised using various alternative health systems. Central to this is the unwavering belief in the body’s ability to heal itself with help from ‘non-toxic’ healing interventions.
COMPLEMENTARY THERAPY is used together with conventional cancer treatment programs with the aim of increasing the tolerability of the treatment program; to reduce symptoms, to reduce complications and to improve quality of life for cancer patients.
Alternative therapies and Complementary therapies are often bundled together under complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).
There are many CAM approaches, including homeopathy, naturopathy, Eastern medicine like Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic medicine, nutritional programs like special diets, nutritional supplements, and nutrient infusions, energy healing, detoxification regimens, mind-body techniques (like mindfulness, meditation, biofeedback, cognitive-behavioral therapy, relaxation, hypnosis, yoga and spirituality, and body-based therapies like massage, chiropractic, and reflexology.
INTEGRATIVE CANCER CARE is not synonymous with complementary and alternative medicine, or ‘CAM’. The principles of integrative oncology are to combine the best of all therapies, the best evidence-based conventional therapies and the best evidence-based CAM therapies for the maximum benefit of each patient. Such an approach will therefore place the patient at the center of treatment focus and aim to draw a personalized treatment plan that hopefully will have the best possibility of beating cancer.
WHICH IS BETTER? In our opinion, there is no clear-cut answer in all cases as every cancer is unique, and this is an important question to raise with your oncologist.
Conventional treatment can be painful, debilitating, disfiguring, and may not always be as successful as those who perform them represent them to be. CAM on the other hand has often been marketed as totally safe due to their apparently natural origins, but this certainly does not guarantee their efficacy, or that treatment will be without risk. I personally have seen too many patients who relied solely on CAM (and many of them in early stages) who progressed to very severe and debilitating disease and suffer terrible and painful end-of-life events.
We have been exposed to a number of alternative cancer treatments – offered instead of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Some patients have reported using them as primary therapies, others who tried them after their cancer recurs or, when they have reached a terminal stage. We have seen individual patients who responded very well to some of these therapies, and we have also seen terrible results from those same treatments, often due to misguided understanding and expectations.
Alternative therapies are ‘potentially’ harmful, especially when patients are led away from effective, proven conventional therapies by the lure of a cure that promises to have no adverse effects and phenomenal cure rates.
It is most unfortunate that conventional and alternative forms of medicine had led to parallel systems of care with a large degree of distrust and lack of communication as opposed to collaboration, cross-education, and the development of an integrated body of knowledge that would offer patients a well-rounded and safe comprehensive treatment plan for the best benefit of the patient.
Often cancer patients must decide among different courses of treatments such as whether or not to use chemotherapy after surgery or radiation, whether to submit to aggressive chemotherapy in the event of a recurrence, whether to try an experimental vaccine, or stem cell transplant or should they go the alternative route? The patient must gamble with their lives on making the right choices, especially when most doctors consider alternative treatment and conventional treatment as INCOMPATIBLE. This poses a dilemma for patients in finding a doctor who can bring the best of both worlds for their benefit.
It is therefore important that you get an Integrative Oncologist as your primary advisor in your cancer journey. We cannot over stress the urgency of the need for this crucial service.
Patients (You) must understand the risk/benefit ratio for any treatment offered, especially its impact on quality of life vs. quantity of life.
In most medical situations that involve serious disease, both doctors and patients are forced to deal with uncertainty. Rarely do they have all the information they need to make decisions that will guarantee desired outcomes. Instead, they use incomplete information to estimate probabilities and place the wisest bets they can. Ultimately patients must take responsibility for this, but it is the doctor’s responsibility to help them understand the possible therapeutic options and their probably consequences.
In should be noted that No integrative oncologist would advise a patient to forgo evidence-based conventional treatment with known efficacy in favor of therapy of unknown safety and efficacy.
A major role for an integrative oncologist is to help patients make difficult choices about standard therapeutic options.
Consider this…
If a patient opts to forego chemotherapy following surgical removal of a cancerous breast lump, choosing instead to make all the right lifestyle choices to reduce risk of recurrence and to use various herbs and dietary supplements as an insurance, is this an informed choice and a wise decision? It maybe – if the patient has been able to estimate the probabilities of outcomes. In the midst of uncertainty, the patient would be able to make better judgement if he/she can obtain and understand;
1. the best available data on his/her particular type and stage of cancer and
2. the risks and benefits of the therapeutic options under consideration.
As the provider and interpreter of medical information, the integrative oncologist is indispensable to this process.
Fighting cancer may be the toughest challenge you will ever face, but you don't have to face it alone.
It is our belief that the more you know about the different methods of practice, the better you are in facing the challenges. We encourage you to explore ALL your options to determine truly what is best for you.