Kidney Cancer Integrative Oncology: Possible Options for Care.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This study aims to review how complementary and integrative medicine (CIM), defined as therapies utilizing nutrition, physical activity, herbs, supplements, mind-body therapies, homeopathy, and other non-traditional therapies, can address the prevention, treatment, side effects, and recurrence of kidney cancer. This review discusses advances and discoveries in research, gaps in research, current debates on the subject, and directions for future research. We queried Ovid MEDLINE and PubMed databases using the search terms kidney cancer, integrative medicine, integrative oncology, nutrition, supplements, treatment, prevention, and therapy. Searches were limited to integrative medicine and integrative oncology. We reviewed CIM therapies related to prevention, treatment, side effect mitigation, and recurrence of kidney cancers. RECENT FINDINGS: Search results yielded 211 studies, of which 87 were relevant to this review. Studies related to CIM and kidney cancer were clustered into themes, including nutrition, physical activity, supplements, mind-body therapies, and alternative therapies. This review provides a foundation for utilizing the principles of integrative medicine in the prevention of and care for patients with kidney cancer and the need for further focused research on the effectiveness of CIM in kidney cancers.

"What Should I Eat?"-Addressing Questions and Challenges Related to Nutrition in the Integrative Oncology Setting.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review aims to assess how nutrition can be addressed in the integrative oncology setting, taking into account cancer patients' unmet needs as they relate to nutrition in cancer care and the evidence-based information that is available on this topic. RECENT FINDINGS: During and after cancer treatment, nutrition is an important component of supportive care, for patients and their family members. Current scientific data consistently show that poor nutrition can reduce survival and decrease adherence to cancer treatments. Unfortunately, the limited availability of dietitians makes access to individualized nutrition counseling challenging, and many cancer patients still do not receive adequate nutritional support. As a result, one of the main unmet needs of patients and their families through the whole cancer trajectory is accessible and up-to-date evidence-based nutritional counseling that emphasizes basic healthy nutrition. The popularity of complementary and integrative medicine among patients with cancer makes the integrative oncology setting an excellent avenue for providing such support. A suggested simple approach that utilizes World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research and American Cancer Society basic information is described. This approach can be easily incorporated into integrative oncology settings, while reserving the role for the registered dietician to address underweight patients, patients with malnutrition, and patients with more complicated dietary situations. The integrative oncology setting is in a unique place in oncology that can be utilized for enhancing dissemination of healthy nutrition information and addressing the unmet needs expressed by patients and families.

Integrative Medicine: Adjunctive Element or Essential Ingredient in Palliative and Supportive Cancer Care?

The aim of supportive cancer care is to actively manage patients' physical, psychologic, and spiritual concerns, independent of prognosis. Complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) is increasingly gaining greater acceptance and support for its beneficial value in supportive cancer care. The utilization of CIM early in the cancer trajectory, during treatment and during survivorship periods, as well as during end of life, addresses a great number of unmet needs that patients affected by cancer raise. In addition, recent research supports the role that CIM has in reducing suffering and distress both physically and emotionally, as well as enhancing well-being in patients affected by cancer and their families. CIM is increasingly seen not only as an adjunctive add-on treatment or perhaps even as a luxury item for the affluent but actually as an important component in supportive cancer care for all patients. It addresses many aspects of care that sometimes are not being addressed with conventional means. With the increase in CIM-related research, as well as the increased clinical experience in oncology programs worldwide, CIM is gradually becoming an essential ingredient in supportive and palliative cancer care. In this narrative review, the authors look systematically at the contribution that CIM has in supportive care in each stage of the cancer trajectory, reflecting the needed role that CIM has in supportive care. The presented data will provide a sampling of the available clinical research for each of the broad stages being described.

Innovations in integrative healthcare education: a healing journey for cancer patients in ontario and an online interdisciplinary CAM course for allied health students in Kentucky.

Content on integrative healthcare and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is being taught in hundreds of educational programs across the country. Nursing, medical, osteopathic, chiropractic, acupuncture, naturopathic, and other programs are finding creative and innovative ways to include these approaches in new models of education and practice. This column spotlights such innovations in integrative healthcare and CAM education and presents readers with specific educational interventions they can adapt into new or ongoing educational efforts at their institution or programs. We invite readers to submit brief descriptions of efforts in their institutions that reflect the creativity, diversity, and interdisciplinary nature of the field.

Teaching integratively: how the next generation of doctors will practice.

To prepare the next generation of physicians, we must understand the environment in which they will practice. Teaching integratively involves co-creating that future health care system with medical students, their teachers, and their patients working together. This essay takes a look at what the health care system of the future might look like, how efforts in medical education are helping create the practitioner of the future, and how current models of practice are already evolving to reflect a view of the future. In addition, multiple references, Web sites, and other resources are listed to provide the reader with useful tools for education, practice, and research. Integrative medicine is the medicine of the future. We can help bring that future about by identifying educational needs and pressing public health issues, reliable scholarly resources, and creative solutions. This article is divided into three sections: (1) the future vision of health care, (2) co-creating the health care system of the future, and (3) recognizing elements of medical care of the future that are here now.