The integrating fields of medicine + oncology
People diagnosed with cancer and their families often use therapies such as acupuncture, exercise, diet and meditation to cope with the physical, emotional, and spiritual effects of the cancer, and in search of relief from symptoms that their conventional treatments have not addressed. Some of these therapies are evidence-based and proven. Others are not. In the early 1990’s Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) was popular as evidenced by the establishment of NIH-NCCAM (National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine). However, these two words - complementary and alternative - meant opposite ideas. Complementary meant in addition to conventional medicine, whereas alternative meant instead of conventional medicine. In the medico-legal world, practising alternative medicine, and especially treating cancer patients with ‘alternative medicine’ remains controversial.
, PhD scholar, MHSc, an expert in health communication and a practitioner of integrative oncology in Australia and internationally, reports.
