Integrated Health Clinics-Are they legitimate?

[alpek]

Hi,

My dad was diagnosed with CLL in 2015, he has been on wait/watch for the past 3 years but as wbc/lymphocyte levels have increased he has opted to receive treatment from an integrated health clinic. The treatments he has been given/recommended include mistletoe injections, malaria vaccine, Loco-Regional Hyperthermia (LRHT). Has anyone in the community had any success or heard of anyone with CLL who has had a positive outcome as a result of any of these treatments? I haven't been able to find any scientific studies linking positive CLL outcomes as a result of any of these treatments, can a clinic recommend these with no scientific basis to a patient? As a side note, this community has been a tremendous help/resource for my family, thank you!

[crystalsky]

Suzanne Summers used mistletoe to treat her breast cancer, but CLL is so different. I don't believe just one thing can heal cancer. It's a whole lifestyle change. Improved diet, exercise, stress reduction, eliminating toxins, etc. One thing like IV vitamin C or mistletoe I don't feel is going to cure CLL. There are success stories out there of people curing their cancers with treatments void of conventional medicine, but I've only run across one that was CLL. Solid tumor cancers seem to have greater success with "other" modalities.

[alpek]

thanks, what I don't understand is how can these integrated health centers recommend treatments with no basis that they will work? Is there no outside regulation at all? How can a clinic recommend injecting someone with malaria vaccine to treat CLL without any basis that this will improve their outcome?

[MsLockYourPosts Passed Volunteer in reply to alpek]

There is a big difference between complementary or integrative medicine, with MDs who specialize in that aspect of care and coordinate with your hematologist / oncologist, and alternative medicine, though some alternative centers use the term integrative. I hope you can convince your father to at least get a second opinion from a hematologist who focuses on CLL with, perhaps an MD of integrative medicine who he works with, rather than an “integrative health clinic”. Perhaps asking for reputable studies regarding the treatments he is getting would help.

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator in reply to alpek]

In reality, there's a spectrum from evidence based treatment centres through to centres where treatments are offered which have little to no evidence of effectiveness and which can be downright dangerous. The degree of regulation depends on the country. In the USA for example, cancer patients can learn of treatments which are not permitted in the USA, so the organisation touting that treatment has their treatment centres in countries with far more lax regulation. The terms complementary/alternative/integrative are unfortunately not well defined and you can get treatments from centres claiming to provide these forms of treatment that may help with cancer or at least improve quality of life through to downright shams. Sadly, because of the huge demand for the certainty of a cure, there's a degree of treatment practices with little to no evidence for their effectiveness being offered in what are considered respectable institutions, cashing in on the demand. It's a growing concern to clinicians who want patients to get the best evidence based treatments available.

Your father should be able to have the reasonable expectation met of having evidence based statistics available to support any treatment he is offered. He may find this post of interest: healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...

Neil