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.