How to Use this Book

If you are reading this book, it is probably because you or someone you care about has received a cancer diagnosis or is concerned about cancer. You or your loved one may have received advice and treatment from doctors, nurses, and other conventional health care providers. But you may be wondering if there is anything else you can do to feel better and improve your health.

If you have been thinking about trying a complementary or alternative therapy, you are not alone. Interest in this field has grown enormously, especially during the past decade. Americans spend billions of dollars on complementary and alternative therapies for a wide variety of diseases, ailments, and medical complaints, including cancer. The growing popularity of complementary and alternative therapies has had an enormous impact on every aspect of health care in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere in the developed world. The rise of complementary and alternative medicine has had a particular influence on people with cancer. While accurate figures are difficult to obtain, it is estimated that about half of all people living with cancer have sought some type of complementary or alternative therapy.

The next chapter will present some concepts and terminology to help you understand the field of complementary and alternative medicine and the types of research that scientists use to evaluate safety and effectiveness. We give an overview of how drugs and dietary supplements are regulated and marketed. We will suggest some general approaches to help you decide what might work for you and give tips for talking with your regular doctor and finding and choosing a complementary health care provider. And in Chapters 5 through 9, we will present information on common and not-so-common complementary and alternative methods of cancer care. Methods included in the book have been promoted for conditions related to cancer, its consequences, or effects related to treatment. The information is collected from many sources and distilled into a concise format that we hope you will find helpful.

Therapies are organized into the five categories listed below and listed alphabetically within each chapter. Methods have been categorized based on similar characteristics and how the treatment is administered or performed.

Chapter 5. Mind, Body, and Spirit Therapies: This chapter includes methods that focus on the connections between the mind, body, and spirit, and their powers for healing.

Chapter 6. Manual Healing and Physical Touch Therapies: This chapter includes treatment methods that involve touching, manipulation, or movement of the body. These techniques are based on the idea that problems in one part of the body often affect other parts of the body.

Chapter 7. Herb, Vitamin, and Mineral Therapies: This chapter contains plant-derived preparations, vitamins, and minerals that are used for therapeutic purposes. It is noted when chemicals extracted from plants are used rather than parts of the plant itself.

Chapter 8. Diet and Nutrition Therapies: This chapter includes dietary approaches and nutritional programs related to prevention and treatment.

Chapter 9. Pharmacologic and Biologic Therapies: This chapter provides information about substances that are synthesized and produced from chemicals or concentrated from plants or other living things.

Chapter 10 lists some resources to assist you in finding other reliable sources of information. In addition, the glossary (starting on page 847) defines many of the terms used throughout the book.

This book is intended to serve as a reference, not to be read from beginning to end. However, we recommend that you read the next few chapters first, particularly if you are unfamiliar with complementary and alternative therapies. Much of the first four chapters is intended to help you evaluate the information to follow.

If you do not find a particular therapy in the section you would expect, please consult the index (starting on page 869) to see if it is included elsewhere. In some cases, methods have been grouped together into broader categories that you may not immediately consider. If an entire chapter interests you, you may want to read through all of the entries contained in that chapter to gain a better understanding of that area of complementary or alternative care. Some methods contain only a few lines or short paragraphs because information on the therapy is limited or it is not widely available. In these cases, there was not enough scientific information to evaluate the evidence, so only a brief description is provided.

Sample Book Entry

All of the entries in Chapters 5-9 follow the same format, allowing a consistent presentation of information so the content can be quickly accessed from entry to entry.

How is it promoted for use?

This section discusses claims' advocates about the effectiveness of the therapy and their theories about how the method works. Claims about the method's value for conditions other than cancer may also be included.

What does it involve?

This section covers what the treatment method involves, how often it is administered, and in what forms the treatment is provided.

What is the history behind it?

This section explores the background of how, when, and by whom the method was developed.

What is the evidence?

This section explores the latest scientific research on each treatment method, as well as general conclusions about the effectiveness of the method based on scientific data.

Are there any possible problems or complications?

This section notes anything people should be aware of or concerned about, such as side effects, drug interactions, reports of death, or other adverse reactions.

References

A reference list of the resources used to compile each entry, specifically the most important information sources, can be found here. Readers may use this reference list and the resource guide in Chapter 10 to obtain more information. This list does not necessarily include every scientific journal article on a topic or all Web sites promoting a method. Doing so would increase the length of the book by several times. Instead, we have chosen the information sources we consider most useful, relevant, and reliable.

Complementary and alternative medicine includes a wide variety of therapies and types of care. Some have been shown to help relieve symptoms and improve quality of life. Others can be harmful. In addition, there is an immense amount of information available about complementary and alternative therapies — some legitimate, and some not.

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