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Alternative Cancer Treatment Works for Billy Best

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(page 6 of 6)

A large body of research studies shows that supportive therapies can play a key role in reducing pain, alleviating stress, and, importantly, helping patients regain a sense of control over their lives. Americans spend an estimated $32 billion annually on nontraditional treatments; advocacy on the part of patients was the critical factor in Dana-Farber's decision to make such therapies available.

Offering integrated therapies within our clinical setting helps us ensure that they're administered safely and conveniently. Equally important, it gives us the opportunity to study them to learn which are useful and which are not, and why. Dana-Farber investigators are currently conducting formal clinical studies of the benefits of acupuncture, exercise, and the traditional Chinese relaxation technique qigong for different groups of cancer patients. By opening our doors to these and other techniques, we can educate patients about therapies that have proven effective.

In the not-too-distant past, patients were often reluctant to inform their doctor about nontraditional therapies they were using out of concern that the doctor would disapprove. As integrated therapies have gained acceptance within the medical community, that "code of silence" is disappearing. Patients are more likely to let their physicians know about their use of such therapies, and physicians are more likely to ask.

At Dana-Farber, we consider it our responsibility to treat the "whole patient." It's only natural that we make ourselves a home for any treatment able to improve patients' emotional, as well as physical, well-being.

--David S. Rosenthal, MD, medical director, Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrated Therapies at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, and former president of the American Cancer Society,

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714X Reviewed

On August 12, the National Cancer Institute issued this statement: "The NCI's [Best Case Series] Program review of the pertinent medical records, radiographic films, and pathology specimens of 17 cancer patients who reportedly received 714X has been completed. At this time the judgment is that there is insufficient information to justify NCI-initiated research on 714X as an anticancer therapy. The [Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine] is seeking authorization to solicit referral of other well-documented cases directly from U.S. cancer patients. If approved, such a solicitation will be posted on the OCCAM Web site, ."