Cancer Rehab at the Block Center

The recent publicity surrounding an article on cancer “prehabilitation” has likely created greater awareness of what was touted as a “new” approach to patient care. “New,” we wondered?!? Not here at the Block Center. We’ve been implementing “cancer rehab” programs with our patients for over 2 decades! 

Conventional medicine typically takes a patient straight from diagnosis to treatment. Meaning, a patient hasn’t even had enough time to digest the life-altering news that they’re facing cancer, and next thing they know, they’re being scheduled for treatment. This blog isn’t the appropriate forum to delve into “why” this is now the norm; however, in the vast majority of cases, it’s safe to say this rush to treatment is medically unnecessary. In fact, we would suggest, it can, at times, be medically disastrous. And yet, it happens every day. We believe there’s a much better way to transition patients into treatment. One that improves patients’ tolerance to treatment and the odds of their beating cancer. And it’s what we do every day at the Block Center.

No one would reasonably argue with the notion that any surgeon would prefer to operate on a patient who is as nutritionally, physically, biologically and psychologically as strong as possible. It makes sense that the better a patient’s overall health and well being, the greater the chances of a better outcome. So, we ask, why should the same not be true of a physician treating a cancer patient? Why rush a cancer patient to treatment when the time pre-treatment can be effectively used to help a patient better tolerate their treatment? When implementing the right program can create a biochemical environment that will boost treatment response, and help reduce toxicity and side-effects? Our argument is further supported by this sobering statistic: 1/3 of chemotherapy patients abandon chemotherapy prematurely due to the debilitating physical and psychological side effects of treatment. And there are studies that show that leaving treatment prematurely can lead to a poorer outcome.

Cancer Rehab at the Block Center

According to Dr. Block, “Cancer rehab is vitally important because it is far more common to find a patient exhausted from chemotherapy and unable to move forward, than it is to exhaust all of the available treatment options. The consequences of the cancer leads to a crisis event — an embolism, sepsis, pneumonia, for example — that sends a patient into a tailspin. At a very minimum, using individualized rehabilitation, these problems can be staved off."

Cancer rehab at the Block Center includes scientifically sound complementary interventions such as therapeutic nutrition, selective supplementation, personalized fitness programs, bio-behavioral therapies, body work, and yoga, as well as other life-enhancing modalities. Each program is tailored to the individual needs of the patient, and modified as a patient’s needs change. 

“I won’t even start chemotherapy with a patient who is not fit enough to undergo it,” Dr. Block says. “It is unfair to the patient and gives the cancer a decided unfair advantage. The disease already has a head start, so cancer patients must be physically and psychologically strong enough to take it on.”

Getting nutritionally, physically and emotionally fit before beginning chemotherapy is only one of the ways Cancer Rehab at the Block Center works. In our next post on Cancer Rehab, we’ll take a look at how Cancer Rehab can benefit patients as they go through treatment. And how it can be especially important for patients who have completed treatment and been deemed in remission. 

For more information on The Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment, visit BlockMD.com.