Outside the Box Cancer Therapies

“Integrative oncology.”

I love that phrase.

And, this line brilliantly captures the primary thesis of the book: “While conventional cancer therapy has its place, it also has its limits.”

That’s worth a repeat: Conventional cancer therapy has its place. AND… It has its limits.

As with most wise approaches to life, the wisest approach to cancer isn’t “either/or.”

We need to transcend and include the best of both the conventional and “holistic” worlds. This book does a great job of showing us how to do so.

As we discussed in Conquering Cancer 101, one of the first things I learned from my friend Pilar Gerasimo was to ask if there was an “integrative” physician on the team. Unfortunately, the answer at the hospital was no. And, unfortunately, my brother’s insurance doesn’t have any in-network integrative/functional MDs nor does it cover naturopathic doctors—which is part of a longer discussion.

For now, let’s embrace the idea of “integrative oncology” and remember (one more time!) the fact that “While conventional cancer therapy has its place, it also has its limits.”

That’s from Chapter 2 on “The Root Causes of Cancer.”

We’ve discussed the two primary theories of cancer in our prior Notes. (Check out Tripping over the Truth and Cancer As a Metabolic Disease for more.)

Stengler and Anderson describe a third theory: The Cancer Stem Cell / Trophoblastic Theory.

For our practical purposes today, let’s focus on this important point: “The only time these ideas get in the way of preventing, treating, or curing cancer is when the approach to treatment relies on only one theory and ignores the others.”

Again, we want to transcend and include and INTEGRATE.

Genetic? Metabolic?

Ultimately, the answer is: Yes.

And, most importantly, we want to make sure our approach accounts for both.

Which, unfortunately, is where our conventional approaches often fall short.

A sign you may need to expand your team’s theoretical and therapeutic perspective to include the metabolic approach? Your oncologist tells you things like, “Eat whatever you want. Nutrition doesn’t matter.” And/or: Your chemotherapy room is stocked with soda and Cheez Its. :0

P.S. For the record, I love the way Nasha addresses the theoretical discussion: “The genetic mutations considered by conventional medicine as the root causes of cancer are, in fact, modifiable by epigenetic factors. Indeed, it is well established that genetics is the cause of only 5-10 percent of cancers and most of these genes encode proteins that impact mitochondrial respiration. It is mitochondrial damage that causes cancer, not the genes. If the inherited cancer gene does not damage mitochondria, cancer will not occur.”

As discussed, when we step “outside the box” and into a more integrative approach to cancer therapies, we enter the world of naturopathic medicine.

Seeing that philosophy drives therapy, it’s important to look at the underlying philosophical principles of an integrative approach. Specifically, the naturopathic approach.

I don’t know about you but a) Even though I’m super open, it’s easy to fall prey to our cultural bias and think an “MD” is somehow “better than” an “ND” and… b) When I read that list above I wish ALL medical doctors adhered to those philosophical principles!!!

Allow the body’s natural healing power to run the show? Sounds smart to remove the obstacles to that ineffably powerful natural life force.

In fact, David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD actually kicked off Anticancer with a quote from renowned scientist Rene Dubos (who discovered the first antibiotic in clinical use in 1939): “I have always felt that the only trouble with scientific medicine is that it is not scientific enough. Modern medicine will become really scientific only when physicians and their patients have learned to manage the forces of the body and the mind that operate via vis medicatrix naturae [the healing power of nature].”

Treat the cause rather than just the symptoms. Um, yah. As per our discussion on wise gardeners and Cancer’s Roots and Leaves, modern medicine has some strengths and weaknesses. Going after the symptoms while ignoring the systems is, perhaps, its biggest flaw.

First, do no harm? That sounds like a good idea—in both theory AND practice. Treating the whole person as a biologically and psychologically unique individual? Good idea! And, finally, Amen to the prevention.

Here’s to the rise of the naturopathic medical doctor! (And standard insurance coverage that includes their wise services!)

P.S. Later in the book, the authors share some wisdom from Dan Rubin, one of the founders of the American Board of Naturopathic Oncology. I love how he puts it: “I have maintained the opinion that naturopathic oncology, as a whole, is not very good at killing cancer cells. What we are good at is causing the cancer cells to die. … Therein lies the question posed by naturopathic oncology: what is it about the environment that allows the cancer cells to survive?”

That’s from a chapter called “Common Cancers and Integrative Approaches” in which we learn how to map out our strategic, integrative approach to our specific diagnosis.

Note: Every (!!!) situation is unique. Period. And, of course, ultimately YOU are the CEO of your health care. Period.

And… Stengler and Anderson provide a powerful overview of how to architect your approach. Check out the book for more. For now, here’s the super-quick take.

If conventional approaches have been proven to work really well for your cancer (like testicular or prostate or Hodgkin’s lymphoma or breast cancer) then, they say, it’s often wise to “seriously consider following the standard protocols”—supplementing it with other integrative practices.

If, on the other hand, you are facing an advanced form of a type of cancer that is notoriously hard for conventional approaches to handle, you may want to consider a much more aggressive alternative approach. That’s where we are with my brother.

In fact, yesterday I literally opened the book to page 207 where they have a chart of “Overall Percent Survival at 1, 5, and 10 Years” for 10 different types of cancers. My brother has pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, that has, by far, the worst survival rates via conventional care. Our approach is, therefore, as aggressive as it can get in following alternative approaches.

(This is also one of the reasons why, after looking at the PET scan 5 weeks after surgery (that resulted in the oncologist and his team saying “If we didn’t know you had cancer, we wouldn’t know you had cancer after looking at these scans.”), our oncologist said that if HE was diagnosed with what my brother has, he’d be following our approach.)

Again, every case is unique. Work with your team. Find the optimal integrative approach for you.

Let’s say you win the first battle with cancer and enter a state of remission in which there is “no evidence of disease.”

First: YES!!! Well done.

Now: Let’s keep you there!! It’s time for “secondary prevention.” We need to do all we can to PREVENT the relapse. This is where an integrative approach is so important. It’s not enough to push the cancer back once. We need to do everything we can to make sure our “terrain” is optimized such that cancer has as little chance as possible of coming back!!!

Stengler and Anderson give us a bunch of ways to approach this. We’ve discussed many in our other Notes. The first and most important therapeutic tool in our tool shed is our MINDS. We’ve gotta maintain that hope and commitment!!

Then we focus on the next biggest lever: Our DIET! Let’s follow the 80/20 stuff we talked about in our Notes on Anticancer plus Conquering Cancer 101, and, if you’re feeling it (and your type of cancer is a good candidate), you may want to go deep with the Keto for Cancer approach we talk about in Conquering Cancer 102.

Then we have stress management, exercise, supplements and IV treatments (super powerful!).

Check out the book for more but know that “stress makes your body more hospitable to cancer” and that “physical activity has the most pronounced effect of all the lifestyle factors on reducing breast cancer recurrence.”

Ultimately, prevention is where it’s at. If we missed the “primary” prevention phase and get hit with cancer, let’s give it all we got and push it into remission. THEN, let’s go ALL IN on a lifetime commitment to secondary prevention. And, in the process, let’s see if we can recreate our health from the ground up and get it so Optimized we’re more radiantly alive than ever before!

Sending love and blessings to you and your family as we think outside the box with our cancer therapies and give life all we’ve got!