Life over cancer The Block Center program for integrative cancer treatment

Surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy may treat cancer but can also necessitate huge changes in lifestyle and body image and predispose the patient to other diseases, recurrence, and death. Block (medical director, Block Ctr. for Integrative Cancer Treatment) lays out a comprehensive complementary-therapy program designed to enhance conventional treatments, and he provides advice that will better a patient's life and improve chances of a full cure. Block stresses that patients should not abandon traditional medicine and should consult their health-care team before adding less traditional treatments. He details an anticancer diet, with specific recommendations for foods and supplements, as well as exercise plans and spiritual maintenance. Methods of boosting one's immune response while providing a less friendly "bioterrain" for cancer cells are suggested, as are techniques to counteract the ill effects, e.g., nausea and fatigue, of traditional cancer therapies. This dense book may overwhelm some readers, but considering the prevalence of cancer, it's sure to be a popular title.-Janet M. Schneider, James A. Haley Veterans Hosp., Tampa (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Chapter One Why Integrative Care Works Cancer is one of the ultimate challenges any of us can face. I tell my patients that it is like being forced to climb Mount Everest: your trek to recovery requires the same committed focus and fitness of body and mind. Many of my patients tell me this analogy not only captures how overwhelmed their illness makes them feel but also reinforces two key ideas. First, to surmount your illness, just as to climb Everest, you need know-how, planning, and preparedness. Second, all mountains are ascended one step at a time, and all illnesses are conquered one step at a time. Every new health-promoting behavior you adopt is a victory. Every improvement in your symptoms, no matter how small, is an important step toward the summit of health. The first point: preparedness is a key to successful cancer therapy. If I dropped you onto the summit of Everest, you would be lucky to survive a few hours in the intense cold and low-oxygen atmosphere. In the same way, unprepared cancer patients often lack the reserves to carry them through treatment. Of course, no rational person would ever let himself be plopped beneath the summit of Everest unprepared. You need training, proper equipment, and time to study the routes and learn the terrain before starting your trek. En route, you pace yourself and set up camps along the way to acclimatize yourself to the altitude. If you're smart, you also enlist an experienced guide, one who helps you navigate the trickiest terrain. So it is with cancer. Ascending Everest is analogous to the attack phase of cancer therapy--the conventional treatment for debulking, or shrinking, the primary tumor. The better and smarter the preparation, the more likely you are to complete this treatment. Don't worry if there is only a little time between when you receive your diagnosis and when you begin treatment such as surgery: even a little preparedness can go a long way. With an experienced guide offering strategies complementary to your chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, treatment will be less debilitating and more effective. If the attack phase is successful in shrinking or eliminating the primary tumor, you've achieved either a partial remission or a complete remission. This is like reaching the summit of Everest. What next More often than not, nothing. Current medical thinking views successful completion of the attack phase ("we got it all") as almost synonymous with a cure. But even with remission after surgery and chemo, some residual undetectable cancer cells likely remain. It has been estimated that approximately half of all cancer patients in remission actually have metastases, malignant cells that have broken off the original tumor, traveled through the bloodstream to far-flung sites in the body, and begun the insidious process of growing into another dangerous tumor. Just because you have achieved remission through elimination of the primary tumor does not mean you are home free. Cancer is not like an infection, where you wipe it out and move on. It is a chronic condition that needs constant vigilance. While conventional cancer treatments often remove much of the disease burden --and it is critical to remove tumor bulk from your body--that is only half the battle. Even when the primary tumor is eliminated, micro- metastases may already have migrated to and seed other parts of the body. These dormant cells can rear up and reestablish themselves. That's why for my patients, complete remission does not mean the end of treatment. Instead, it means the start of the containment or growth control phase, when we focus on stopping or slowing further growth of any residual disease (visible tumors) or invisible metastatic cancer cells. Post-treatment is a time to be particularly aggressive. To continue the Everest metaphor, a successful climb is not only about summiting Excerpted from Life over Cancer: The Block Center Program for Integrative Cancer Treatment by Keith Block All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.