The scientific literature features a great deal of information about many promising new integrative cancer treatments. In this interview, Donald Abrams, MD, and Tina Kaczor, ND, FABNO, explain which natural therapies they feel show the most promise in enhancing conventional cancer treatments, offsetting side effects of conventional treatments and helping patients recover from conventional treatments.

Donald Abrams, MD, is a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and chief of hematology/oncology at San Francisco General Hospital. He provides integrative oncology consultations at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and is cochair of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center's developing program in supportive care. Abrams has conducted numerous clinical trials investigating complementary therapies in patients with HIV, including therapeutic touch, traditional Chinese medicine interventions, medical marijuana, medicinal mushrooms and distant healing. He completed a two-year fellowship in the program of integrative medicine at the University of Arizona and is a past-president of the Society for Integrative Oncology. He has also coedited an Oxford University Press textbook in integrative oncology with Andrew Weil, MD.

Tina Kaczor, ND, FABNO, is a naturopathic physician, board certified in naturopathic oncology. She is in private practice at the Clinic of Natural Medicine in Eugene, Ore. Kaczor received her naturopathic doctorate from National College of Natural Medicine and completed her residency in naturopathic oncology at Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Tulsa, Okla. She earned undergraduate degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Kaczor is a member of the Oncology Association of Naturopathic Physicians and secretary of the American Board of Naturopathic Oncology. She has been published in several peer-reviewed journals and is the senior medical editor for Natural Medicine Journal. Kaczor writes and lectures extensively on a broad range of topics in natural medicine, with specific expertise in naturopathic oncology. For more information, visit clinicofnaturalmedicine.com.

For more information on this topic, visit the American Institute for Cancer Research, the Society of Integrative Oncology or the Oncology Association of Naturopathic Physicians.