EVANSTON, IL – A 12-year study conducted by the Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment has shown a doubling of life expectancy for a group of 90 metastatic breast cancer patients. The results were published in the July/August issue of The Breast Journal. The women, diagnosed before 1998, participated in a comprehensive clinical program that combined conventional treatments—surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation—with individualized nutrition and supplementation, as well as fitness and mind-spirit regimens.
Through the 1990s, median survival reported in metastatic breast cancer research ranged on average from 12 to 24 months. Median survival for Block Center consecutive case series patients was 38 months, and their five- year survival was 27%, versus 17% for comparison patients. Published literature on populations with more favorable prognostic factors treated in conventional clinics showed median survivals of 20 to 23 months.
Survival of metastatic breast cancer patients at the Block Center was approximately double that of comparison populations, and possibly even higher compared to several randomized trials published during this period. It would appear that the advantage relative to just conventional treatment alone stems from the individually- tailored nutritional, nutraceutical, exercise and psychosocial interventions in the Center’s program.
In addition to age and occurrence of relapses several other factors, not typically assessed in conventional settings, can impact survival in breast cancer patients, among them: body weight, psychosocial distress with elevated catecholamines, cortisol, inflammatory and oxidative mediators, diet and physical activity. Randomized trials of single-agent therapies or one-dimensional interventions appear inadequate to address this complexity, and there is a need for new clinical models to research and test whole systems interventions, such as the integrative care program at the Block Center.
"New cancer drugs are routinely approved for extending survival for 2 to 3 months,” said Dr. Keith I. Block, medical and scientific director of the Block Center. “There currently is no drug that has demonstrated the potential to double the life expectancy of metastatic breast cancer patients, as evidenced in these findings. These data are another compelling argument for conducting further research into an integrative treatment model for cancer.
“Our statistics were derived from our community-based patient population. While our group was comparable on major prognostic factors, we had a higher proportion of relapsed and younger patients (the median age at onset of metastasis was 46 years) than the comparison patients, which usually means a poorer prognosis. One would have expected worse survival rates, but that is the opposite of what we saw.”
“This is the first time that treatment outcomes using integrative cancer therapy for this disease have been documented,” Dr. Block said. “The survival times for our population were substantially higher than for patients who received conventional treatment alone.”
Dr. Azra Raza, Director of the Myelodysplatic Syndrome Center, St. Vincent’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, New York, characterized the Block Center’s comprehensive, integrative program as “superior….This evidence- based integrative approach should serve as a wake-up call for oncologists to overcome their obsession with treating cancer as an isolated target, but rather pay attention to the cancer patient whose own faculties need to be harnessed as agencies to win this war.”
Citation: Survival Impact of Integrative Cancer Care in Advanced Metastatic Breast Cancer, Block KI, Gyllenhaal C, Tripathy D, Freels S , Mead MN, Block PB, Steinmann WC, Robert A. Newman RA, & Shoham J. The Breast Journal, 2009, 15(4), pp 357-366.
For more information on The Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment, call (847) 230-9107 or visit BlockMD.com.
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