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.