Terry Thompson’s Blog

Yesterday, I began a series of blog posts about Maria Claudia White, a breast cancer patient, as reported by Erin Quinn in Natural Solutions magazine.  Prompted by her integrative oncologist, she began several selective complementary therapies in parallel with her conventional treatments.  Her first appointment was with a mind-body therapist at Duke Integrative Medicine.  Dealing with cancer treatment demands emotional efficiency.  Decision-making, discipline, and determination must be at their peak during the treatment.  In many ways the body responds to the mind and heart.  Being in the most positive and responsive psychological state can enhance the body’s healing processes as well as the toleration of the treatment.  This can reduce the duration of treatment significantly.

Maria Claudia received art therapy exercises.  She practiced meditation techniques.  At one point, she listed everything that could go wrong with the cancer, put the list in a box, and gave it to someone for safe keeping.  She said that the therapy helped her quiet all the noise that constantly bombarded her mind and kept her worried. 

Recently, increased interest in mind-body therapy has led to more testing that has confirmed its efficacy.  It has proven to bolster the immune system, enhance chemotherapy, and extend life.  It lessens the level of pain and eases the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation.  Much more research and testing need to be done.  It is a key aspect of integrative oncology and deserves more attention.

The best way to become familiar with exactly what integrative oncology is all about is to learn it first hand from someone who has done it.  A recent article in Natural Solutions magazine by Erin Quinn chronicled the experiences of Dr. Maria Claudia White.  Dr. White, at the age of 52, was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Her cancer was about the worst type she could have.  She had the BRACAI gene mutation, and her mother died form the disease at the age of 45.  This increased her odds of breast cancer by 60% to 80%.  The lump in her breast was also a triple-negative tumor which is much more difficult to treat than most.  Her prognosis for survival is not good at all.

Maria’s oncologist at Duke University Medical Center recommended an aggressive treatment that included surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.  To her surprise, the oncologist also recommended that she check out complementary therapies at Duke integrative Medicine.  Her oncologist counseled her about how much support the body needs to fight this disease.  She said the body is actually working harder than the chemotherapy or radiation.  She related that the oncologists don’t know everything, especially concerning complementary therapies.  A good doctor will be willing to explore treatments additional to traditional ones.

Maria researched numerous integrative treatments and practitioners.  Between her research and her oncologist’s counsel, she decided to begin sessions of mind-body therapy, integrative nutrition, hypnotherapy, acupuncture, and biofeedback treatments.  She believed she needed to do everything she could to make her body as hostile an environment as possible for cancer.

In the next few blog posts, I will cover Maria White’s experiences with her complementary treatments.  It will be a special opportunity for you to gain first-hand knowledge of what is involved in and the advantages of integrative oncology.  Come back to this site often.

I have been away from my blog for a few days due to my schedule, for which I apologize.  After learning of Patrick Swayze’s death, I knew I had to get back in the groove.  The Dirty Dancing and Ghost icon certainly put up a fight with the disease, but as is the fate of practically all Stage IV cancer victims, he ultimately lost the battle.  His pancreatic cancer that metastasized to his liver is one of the most serious of cancers with few symptoms and rapid spread.  From initial diagnosis, he lived about 20 months with chemotherapy.  He was treated at one point with an experimental drug, Vatalanib.  Vatalanib inhibits enzymes needed for cell growth, thereby stunting the growth of the tumor.  The drug is still in clinical trials and was obviously not effective in Swayze’s case.   

He made public statements of his confidence in conventional treatment and his dismissal of anything other than mainstream medicine.  It is interesting that he was a heavy smoker and continued smoking throughout his treatment.  Among the complements to chemotherapy that Mr. Swayze might have explored are oleander, black cumin seed oil (Nigella Sativa) and pancreatic enzymes - all of which have had success against pancreatic cancer, especially when combined with a healthy and nutritional diet and lifestyle that replenishes the body instead of diminishes it.  Prescription of such complements is the practice of integrative oncologists.  No one can say that a more integrative approach would have led to Patrick Swayze’s survival of the disease or even extended his life.  However, the proven benefits of integrative therapies and the death of another celebrity cancer victim who refused anything not mainstream at least reminds us again of the poor track record of exclusively conventional cancer therapy.  What is wrong with having both?  Conventional therapy enhanced by integrative therapies will, plain and simply, be the best choice.  It is a choice.