A New Strategy for the War on Cancer - 11
In an earlier post, I highlighted the tremendous amout of money that is being infused into the various cancer fighting institutions such as the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the American Cancer Society (ACS), the Komen Foundation, etc. Americans provide over 6 billion a year in taxes and donations through these organizations for cancer research and care. This is good. But, regrettably, hardly any of it goes toward any effort other than a traditional, conventional approach to cancer. The billions of dollars are almost entirely spent on chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery projects.
Real hope must lie in more than the limited successes that conventional treatment has produced. Real hope will come with substantially more resources directed toward Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) research, and that isn’t happening. The objective of CAM research and practice is not to replace conventional medicine, but to enhance it, reduce its harmful effects, and shorten its duration. This concept of complementing conventional cancer treatment with natural, non-toxic therapies that strengthen the body and mind is commonly called integrative oncology.
In 2008, NCI was allotted $5.6 billion from its parent government organization, the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Of that tax-funded amount, only $122 million went to CAM projects. That was about 3% of NCI tax receipts that went to CAM projects. Grants and donations to ACS totaled just over a billion dollars in 2008. Four small CAM research grants sponsored by ACS came to about a million dollars or about one-tenth of one percent of all ACS sponsored grants. CAM-related research grants provided by the Komen Foundation accounted for about one million dollars of the $60 million allocated for all projects in 2008. This was less than 2% of all monies raised by Komen going toward any kind of CAM research. My best estimate is that CAM cancer research receives only about 1% of all cancer research grants in America. That amount will not change the course of cancer treatment.
Unless and until we become seriously committed as a nation to exploring possibilities outside of the conventional areas of chemicals and radiation, we will just be extending the unsuccessful strategy of the cancer war indefinitely. The new strategy for the war on cancer must be funded at a much greater level.