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Integrative oncology for breast cancer patients: introduction of an expert-based model

BACKGROUND: Malignant breast neoplasms are among the most frequent forms of cancer in the Western world. Conventional treatment of breast cancer may include surgery, hormonal therapy, chemotherapy, radiation and/or immunotherapy, all of which are often accompanied by severe side effects. Complementa...

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Autores principales: Dobos, Gustav J, Voiss, Petra, Schwidde, Ilka, Choi, Kyung-Eun, Paul, Anna, Kirschbaum, Barbara, Saha, Felix J, Kuemmel, Sherko
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3582454/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23170989
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2407-12-539
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author Dobos, Gustav J
Voiss, Petra
Schwidde, Ilka
Choi, Kyung-Eun
Paul, Anna
Kirschbaum, Barbara
Saha, Felix J
Kuemmel, Sherko
author_facet Dobos, Gustav J
Voiss, Petra
Schwidde, Ilka
Choi, Kyung-Eun
Paul, Anna
Kirschbaum, Barbara
Saha, Felix J
Kuemmel, Sherko
author_sort Dobos, Gustav J
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Malignant breast neoplasms are among the most frequent forms of cancer in the Western world. Conventional treatment of breast cancer may include surgery, hormonal therapy, chemotherapy, radiation and/or immunotherapy, all of which are often accompanied by severe side effects. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments have been shown to be effective in alleviating those symptoms. Furthermore, with patient survival rates increasing, oncologists, psychologists and other therapists have to become more sensitive to the needs of cancer survivors that go beyond than the mere alleviation of symptoms. Many CAM methods are geared to treat the patient in a holistic manner and thus are also concerned with the patient’s psychological and spiritual needs. DISCUSSION: The use of certain CAM methods may become problematic when, as frequently occurs, patients use them indiscriminately and without informing their oncologists. Herbal medicines and dietary supplements, especially, may interfere with primary cancer treatments or have other detrimental effects. Thus, expertise in this highly specialized field of integrative medicine should be available to patients so that they can be advised about the benefits and negative effects of such preparations and practices. Being a beneficial combination of conventional and CAM care, integrative oncology makes possible the holistic approach to cancer care. The concept of integrative oncology for breast cancer is jointly practiced by the Department of Internal and Integrative Medicine, Kliniken Essen-Mitte, academic teaching hospital of the University of Duisburg-Essen, and the Breast Center at Kliniken Essen-Mitte in Germany. This model is introduced here; its scope is reviewed, and its possible implications for the practice of integrative medicine are discussed. SUMMARY: Evidence-based integrative care is crucial to the field of oncology in establishing state-of-the-art care for breast cancer patients.
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spelling pubmed-35824542013-02-27 Integrative oncology for breast cancer patients: introduction of an expert-based model Dobos, Gustav J Voiss, Petra Schwidde, Ilka Choi, Kyung-Eun Paul, Anna Kirschbaum, Barbara Saha, Felix J Kuemmel, Sherko BMC Cancer Debate BACKGROUND: Malignant breast neoplasms are among the most frequent forms of cancer in the Western world. Conventional treatment of breast cancer may include surgery, hormonal therapy, chemotherapy, radiation and/or immunotherapy, all of which are often accompanied by severe side effects. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments have been shown to be effective in alleviating those symptoms. Furthermore, with patient survival rates increasing, oncologists, psychologists and other therapists have to become more sensitive to the needs of cancer survivors that go beyond than the mere alleviation of symptoms. Many CAM methods are geared to treat the patient in a holistic manner and thus are also concerned with the patient’s psychological and spiritual needs. DISCUSSION: The use of certain CAM methods may become problematic when, as frequently occurs, patients use them indiscriminately and without informing their oncologists. Herbal medicines and dietary supplements, especially, may interfere with primary cancer treatments or have other detrimental effects. Thus, expertise in this highly specialized field of integrative medicine should be available to patients so that they can be advised about the benefits and negative effects of such preparations and practices. Being a beneficial combination of conventional and CAM care, integrative oncology makes possible the holistic approach to cancer care. The concept of integrative oncology for breast cancer is jointly practiced by the Department of Internal and Integrative Medicine, Kliniken Essen-Mitte, academic teaching hospital of the University of Duisburg-Essen, and the Breast Center at Kliniken Essen-Mitte in Germany. This model is introduced here; its scope is reviewed, and its possible implications for the practice of integrative medicine are discussed. SUMMARY: Evidence-based integrative care is crucial to the field of oncology in establishing state-of-the-art care for breast cancer patients. BioMed Central 2012-11-21 /pmc/articles/PMC3582454/ /pubmed/23170989 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2407-12-539 Text en Copyright ©2012 Dobos et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Debate
Dobos, Gustav J
Voiss, Petra
Schwidde, Ilka
Choi, Kyung-Eun
Paul, Anna
Kirschbaum, Barbara
Saha, Felix J
Kuemmel, Sherko
Integrative oncology for breast cancer patients: introduction of an expert-based model
title Integrative oncology for breast cancer patients: introduction of an expert-based model
title_full Integrative oncology for breast cancer patients: introduction of an expert-based model
title_fullStr Integrative oncology for breast cancer patients: introduction of an expert-based model
title_full_unstemmed Integrative oncology for breast cancer patients: introduction of an expert-based model
title_short Integrative oncology for breast cancer patients: introduction of an expert-based model
title_sort integrative oncology for breast cancer patients: introduction of an expert-based model
topic Debate
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3582454/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23170989
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2407-12-539
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