Small group meetings of people facing similar challenges help many people in managing distress and side effects of cancer treatments.
How do experts use support groups?
Both medical groups and integrative experts provide recommendations for support groups and interventions in treating people with cancer. Learn more about the approaches and meanings of recommendations: Integrative Oncology Programs and Expert Guidelines ›
Clinical practice guidelines
In the 2020 NCCN survivorship care guidelines, support groups are one of several therapies strongly recommended as part of a multidisciplinary approach to reduce anxiety, mood disturbance, and chronic pain, and improve quality of life.
Published protocols, programs, and approaches
Support groups are used in programs, approaches, and protocolsa package of therapies combining and preferably integrating various therapies and practices into a cohesive design for care from these integrative oncologists, drawing from both scientific research and observations from years or even decades of treating people with cancer.
Keith Block, MD
Block KI. Life over Cancer: The Block Center Program for Integrative Cancer Care. New York: Bantam Dell. 2009.
The integrative Block Program has recommendations to people who are at different places along the cancer continuum:
- Those who’ve been recently diagnosed
- Those in treatment
- Those who’ve concluded treatment and need to remain vigilant to prevent recurrence
Integrative physician and CancerChoices advisor Keith Block, MD, suggests that support groups are most helpful during or after treatment rather than right after diagnosis. Benefits of a structured support group may include these:1Block KI. Life over Cancer: The Block Center Program for Integrative Cancer Care. New York: Bantam Dell. 2009.
- Confidential expression of concerns, fears, and anger
- Development of new or strengthened coping skills
- Enhanced communication and a closer connection to those who matter most in your life
- Warding off isolation and disconnection
- Opportunities for relaxation, cognitive reframing, and self-hypnosis training
- Meditation guidance
- Opportunities to laugh with people who can readily appreciate the difficulties of finding special moments of joy
Lorenzo Cohen, PhD, and Alison Jefferies, MEd
Cohen L, Jefferies A. Anticancer Living: Transform Your Life and Health with the Mix of Six. New York: Viking. 2018.
This book introduces the concept of the Mix of Six, which is identical to six of our 7 Lifestyle Practices ›
Dr. Cohen and Ms. Jefferies explain that while each plays an independent role, the synergy created by all six factors can radically transform health, delay or prevent many cancers, support conventional treatments, and significantly improve quality of life.
Gerald Lemole, MD; Pallav Mehta, MD; and Dwight McKee, MD
Lemole GM, Mehta PK, McKee DL. After Cancer Care: The Definitive Self-Care Guide to Getting and Staying Well for Patients with Cancer. New York, New York: Rodale, Inc. 2015.
These doctors present easy-to-incorporate lifestyle changes to help you “turn on” hundreds of genes that fight cancer, and “turn off” the ones that encourage cancer, while recommending lifestyle approaches to address each type.
Other expert recommendations
Donald Abrams, MD, and Andrew Weil, MD
This 2014 book by integrative medicine experts and CancerChoices advisors Donald Abrams, MD, and Andrew Weil, MD, desribes a wide variety of complementary interventions to conventional cancer care, including a chapter from the perspective of a cancer patient.
Abrams & Weil state that mind-bodyapproaches that enhance your mind’s capacity to positively affect your body’s function and symptoms. Some interventions focus on calming your mind, improving focus, enhancing decision-making capacity, managing stress, or resolving conflict. Other interventions have a goal of relaxing both your mind and your body. interventions, including support groups, benefit symptoms and quality of life and may even extend life.
References