Dear Friend
Integrating your conventional, complementary and self-care therapies is often challenging.
With conventional treatments, be clear about your goals and what to expect.
With self care, the 7 Lifestyle Practices are a powerful approach to self-healing that cost little or nothing.
With complementary care, the choices are numerous. We recommend working with experienced and credentialed practitioners.
Dear Friend
Our deeply researched reviews of complementary therapies can help.
Some people achieve lasting complete remissions from advanced cancer using an integrative approach. This is well documented by our colleague Kelly Turner in her book and ongoing Radical Remission Project.
Cancer survival curves show that many patients live far longer than the median survival. Complementary therapies and self-care practices are often prominent in longer-term survival. Radical remissions are simply the endpoint of the extended survival curves.
While radical remissions are rare, life beyond median survival isn’t rare at all. By definition, half of all cancer patients survive beyond the median survival point. It makes perfect sense that people who wisely choose their conventional and complementary therapies and who practice self care are likely to live better and longer than those who don’t.
We’ve known hundreds of people in the Commonweal Cancer Help Program who lived lives worth living for far longer than their physicians expected.
Wishing you well,
Michael Lerner
Michael Lerner is co-founder of Commonweal and co-founder of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, Healing Circles, The New School at Commonweal, and CancerChoices. He has led more than 200 Commonweal Cancer Help Program retreats to date. His book Choices In Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Approaches to Cancer was the first book on integrative cancer care to be well received by prominent medical journals as well as by the patient and integrative cancer care community.
Michael Lerner
Michael Lerner is co-founder of Commonweal and co-founder of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, Healing Circles, The New School at Commonweal, and CancerChoices. He has led more than 200 Commonweal Cancer Help Program retreats to date. His book Choices In Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Approaches to Cancer was the first book on integrative cancer care to be well received by prominent medical journals as well as by the patient and integrative cancer care community.
Introduction
Combining the best of conventionalthe cancer care offered by conventionally trained physicians and most hospitals; examples are chemotherapy, surgery, and radiotherapy, complementaryin cancer care, complementary care involves the use of therapies intended to enhance or add to standard conventional treatments; examples include supplements, mind-body approaches such as yoga or psychosocial therapy, and acupuncture, and self carelifestyle actions and behaviors that may impact cancer outcomes; examples include eating health-promoting foods, limiting alcohol, increasing physical activity, and managing stress when you have been diagnosed with cancer can make a difference in your health and quality of life.
The number of integrativein cancer care, a patient-centered approach combining the best of conventional care, self care and evidence-informed complementary care in an integrated plan cancer centers and providers is growing. You will find differences between one integrative center and another, and between one integrative treatment team and another. The term “integrative” doesn’t always indicate use of the same therapies or approaches.
While you may be able to find an integrative cancer center that offers all that you are looking for, you may also need to build your own team to design a personalized integrative approach. We offer a variety of resources to help inform your choices in cancer care.
Resources to help you make key choices in cancer care
Within this handbook
Other handbooks
Community
Helpful links
Keep reading about how to integrate your choices
Reviewers of selected sections
Dr. Rao is a medical oncologist, the medical director of integrative oncology at University Hospitals Connor Whole Health, and director of medical oncology for genitourinary cancer at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center. He is the 2022-23 president-elect of the Society for Integrative Oncology. Dr. Rao is also the host of the podcast Integrative Oncology Talk, with support from the Society for Integrative Oncology.
After graduating from the University of Michigan Medical School and completing a residency program in internal medicine at the University of California San Diego, Dr. Rao completed a fellowship in integrative medicine at the University of Arizona and later obtained a board certification in integrative medicine through the American Board of Integrative Medicine. Dr. Rao has trained in Ayurveda and Healing Touch. He also attended the Leadership Program in Integrative Medicine at Duke University. His research interests include genitourinary oncology, sleep, and integrative medicine implementation and program development.
Erin Price, MSW, LICSW, OSW-C, was driven to help others facing cancer shortly after her own breast cancer diagnosis in 2010 at the age of 27. Erin currently serves as the Young Adult and Psychosocial Support Programs Director at Smith Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, DC, where she manages various programs and serves as a therapist and integrative patient navigator. Her areas of expertise include cancer survivorship, adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer, and integrative cancer care. She is also a graduate of the National Breast Cancer Coalition’s Project LEAD scientific research advocacy training, an experienced grant reviewer for the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program, and a member of the Georgetown Breast Cancer Advocates. She has presented at several national conferences and been published in peer-reviewed journals. In 2021, she was recognized as a 40 Under 40 Rising Star and Emerging Leader in Cancer.
Christine has a dynamic background in the life sciences, public health, and program operations. Her career began at the lab bench with a Gates Foundation-funded HIV Vaccine research group, which led her to graduate studies in public health epidemiology at UC Berkeley. Her research experience spans clinical epidemiology research to evaluating the impacts of community nutrition programs in Los Angeles, the Central Valley, and Oakland. Most recently she has worked in executive operations for a seed-stage venture capital firm based in San Francisco. Personally, Christine is passionate about holistic health and wellness. She is a clinical herbalist and Reiki master, and she has been practicing yoga for 15+ years. She brings a breadth of experiences to her work leading the CancerChoices program.
Last update: October 31, 2024
Last full resource review: August 2021
CancerChoices provides information about integrative in cancer care, a patient-centered approach combining the best of conventional care, self care and evidence-informed complementary care in an integrated plan cancer care. We review complementaryin cancer care, complementary care involves the use of therapies intended to enhance or add to standard conventional treatments; examples include supplements, mind-body approaches such as yoga or psychosocial therapy, and acupuncture therapies and self-care lifestyle actions and behaviors that may impact cancer outcomes; examples include eating health-promoting foods, limiting alcohol, increasing physical activity, and managing stress practices to help patients and professionals explore and integrate the best combination of conventionalthe cancer care offered by conventionally trained physicians and most hospitals; examples are chemotherapy, surgery, and radiotherapy and complementary therapies and practices for each person.
Our staff have no financial conflicts of interest to declare. We receive no funds from any manufacturers or retailers gaining financial profit by promoting or discouraging therapies mentioned on this site.