In the early years of his practice, Dr. Block was seeing two distinct patient groups: the first, a conventionally-treated patient population, the second, patients who used alternative treatments. The conventionally-treated patients often responded well to their cancer treatment; however, they struggled with the side effects. Patients who chose only alternative therapies tolerated their treatments well, but invariably, their disease progressed. When Dr. Block encouraged conventionally-treated patients to incorporate a personalized, integrative treatment regimen into their existing treatment plan, or encouraged alternative leaning patients to include mainstream therapies into their treatment protocol, both groups did far better. In fact, by combining the best of both approaches, each group fared substantially better with regards to both treatment tolerance and treatment response. It was clear to Dr. Block that “the middle ground was the optimal ground.” 
Since opening our doors in 1980, we’ve been looking for research-based strategies that can help reduce toxicity, reduce treatment resistance, enhance quality of life, and improve survival. A patient with greater “health integrity,” whether it’s in regards to their dietary habits, fitness regimen, circadian health, stress management or sleep habits – the lifestyle factors that influence our health and wellbeing – the patient who has substantive health integrity not only feels better, they do better. Which just makes good sense. After all, there’s no surgeon on the planet that would not want to have a healthier patient on the table. Why should that be any different for a physician treating a patient for cancer?
We know that integrative treatment approaches not only improve quality of life, they reduce toxicity and they allow patients to complete full courses of treatment. And the data speaks for itself: they improve outcome and survival. What the research demonstrates and what we know from our 43+ years of utilizing an integrative approach to treating patients is that anything that leads to the need to reduce treatment dosing, to a delay in the interval between treatments, interrupted treatment schedules, or anything that leads to a patient abandoning mainstream treatment, leads to shorter survival and worse outcomes.
At the Block Center, our treatment protocols include an innovative approach to mainstream treatment combined with select, laboratory-directed, cutting edge, individualized complementary therapies.
For additional information or to schedule a consultation, please call 1-877-41-BLOCK (25625).