Cancer Care Clinic
Adjunctive and Integrative therapies that may help with treatment side effects and pain, alongside your conventional cancer treatment
- Supervised by Dr. Price
- Coordinated with oncology
- Education for families
Overview
Cancer Care Clinic
Our Cancer Care Clinic is supervised by Dr. Allan Price, ND, whose clinical practice has focused on integrative and adjunctive cancer care for over 25 years.
We provide naturopathic cancer care in coordination with the oncology team. Our role is to work with that plan so you can tolerate treatment better, reduce resistance, manage symptoms, stay vital longer, stay informed and supported throughout care.
What Integrative Naturopathic Cancer Care Aims to Support
- Quality of life: supportive therapies such as nutrition counselling, acupuncture, and lifestyle strategies may help with energy, appetite, nausea, and pain alongside your conventional treatment.
- Treatment tolerance: some adjunctive therapies have been studied for their potential to help patients tolerate chemotherapy and manage specific side effects.
- Education and support: for you and your family, so you feel informed and involved at every step.
Patients often choose naturopathic cancer care for support with treatment tolerance, symptom management, treatment resistance, quality of life, and informed decision-making throughout their plan. We do not claim that this care improves treatment efficacy, increases survival, or reduces recurrence. Research on adjunctive naturopathic cancer care is ongoing.
Our team strongly believes in the importance of integrating non-conventional and complementary cancer care treatments that have been studied for safety, alongside conventionally recommended treatments.
Conventional cancer treatment often includes surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Alongside it, complementary cancer therapy includes therapeutic nutritional support, enzyme therapy, hormone therapy, diet therapy, detoxification of toxic accumulation, positive lifestyle reinforcement, stress control, counselling and biofeedback.
While additional information is still needed, many clinical trials have demonstrated positive improvement in treatment outcomes, which include:
- improved overall quality of life
- reduced adverse reactions
(See resource section below.) Note that adjunctive therapy is not a substitute for conventional oncology care and outcomes vary by individual and diagnosis.
How it works
How Integrative Cancer Care Supports the Body During Treatment
If you are already in a conventional oncology program, integrative cancer care is a logical next layer of support. It does not replace surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, or directed hormone therapy. It is an adjunct to the care plan to support overall health, quality of life, and the ability to tolerate treatment.
A care plan may address nutrition, metabolic health, hormone balance, immune function, inflammation, digestion, sleep, stress, physical activity, and nutrient status. Therapies are chosen according to diagnosis, symptoms, current oncology treatments, and the evidence for safe, appropriate use.
Supportive therapies may include:
- Nutritional and dietary support
- Botanical and nutritional medicine
- Hormone therapy
- Acupuncture
- Lifestyle and stress-management strategies
- Correction of nutritional deficiencies
- Intravenous nutrient therapy, when appropriate
- Intravenous vitamin C, when appropriate
- Viscum album (mistletoe) therapy, when appropriate
Natural therapies, nutrients, and hormone treatments may interact with chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, oncology hormone therapy, and other medications. Recommendations should be individualized and coordinated with the conventional treatment plan.
At Pure Wellness Group, these therapies are used as adjunctive care. They are coordinated with conventional cancer treatment, not intended to be used in place of it.
Goals
Goals of Integrative Cancer Therapy
Your oncology team directs the treatment of the cancer itself. Naturopathic care focuses on supporting you as a whole person throughout your treatment.
The goal of implementing natural and adjunctive cancer therapies is to support those who are undergoing conventional treatment for cancer. It may help in reducing the side effects of conventional treatments and in supporting healthy processes in the body.
Natural therapies
Natural Therapies in Cancer Research
Laboratory research has explored whether some natural supplements and therapies have anti-tumour activity. These include cellular, animal-model and some human trial findings, not a guarantee of clinical benefit in all patients. They include, but are not limited to, the following:
- EGCG (Green tea extract)
- Curcumin (Turmeric)
- Modified Citrus Powder
- Melatonin
- Intravenous Vitamin C
- Viscum Album (Mistletoe) Injection
Mistletoe is a widely used complementary therapy in integrative cancer care. It is mostly used to support quality of life and the tolerability of chemotherapy. There is some evidence for an effect on tumor control and survival. Other studies are mixed. Mistletoe extracts contain a variety of biologically active compounds such as lectins, viscotoxins, oligo- and polysaccharides and triterpene acids.
Vitamin C
Intravenous Vitamin C
High dose intravenous Vitamin C therapy is used by some integrative practitioners as an additive treatment alongside conventional cancer care. Some studies report that it may help reduce the side effects of conventional treatments. We do not claim that it makes those treatments more effective or that it treats the cancer itself.
In laboratory studies, large amounts of vitamin C are converted into hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), which can be toxic to cells. Healthy cells have a high level of an enzyme called catalase which can protect against H2O2, while many of the cancer cells studied had less catalase and were damaged by the H2O2 produced. These findings describe a possible mechanism; they are not proof of benefit in patients.
Diet
Eating Right (Diet Therapy)
Diet is an important aspect of supporting your health during cancer treatment. It is important to undertake specialized dietary changes that take into consideration current conventional treatments, your state of health and progression of the disease.
Integrating diet modification carefully into a care plan, alongside your conventional treatment, has the potential to offer benefit.
After treatment
After Completion of Chemotherapy and Radiation
Despite notable improvements in chemotherapy and radiation technologies, these approaches can affect the immune system, and many people look for ways to support their health after treatment.
Complementary therapies may help support the immune system and quality of life after these treatments.
Common concerns include weakness, fatigue, and lack of mental focus. Proper diet, exercise, nutrients, vitamins and minerals are important during and after chemotherapy and/or radiation to support the body’s recovery after treatment.
Combining
Combining Natural Therapies with Conventional Treatments
Each patient is unique and therefore many factors need to be considered including: the type of cancer; the stage; what conventional treatments have or will been done, etc. There are a variety of natural treatments that may be used alongside conventional treatments, and each needs to be considered thoughtfully in your treatment plan.
At Pure Wellness Group, we look closely at the research behind our treatments. There are many supplements claiming to be the “magic cure”. We aim to use only supplements which have been scientifically studied in individuals being treated for cancer.
Immune support
Supporting Your Immune System (Botanical Medicine)
The immune system plays a role in how the body responds to cancer. Some integrative care plans include nutrients, mushroom extracts and herbal remedies intended to support immune function. We can assist coordinating any supplement and medication management with your oncology team, particularly during chemotherapy or radiation treatment.
Research
Resources
- Long-term survival of a patient with advanced pancreatic cancer under adjunct treatment with Viscum album extracts: A case report. Werthmann PG, Kempenich R, Lang-Avérous G, Kienle GS. World J Gastroenterol. 2019 Mar 28;25(12):1524-1530. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i12.1524.
- ERRATUM TO: Long-Term Tumor-Free Survival in a Patient with Stage IV Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Undergoing High-Dose Chemotherapy and Viscum album Extract Treatment: A Case Report. Werthmann PG, Kempenich R, Kienle GS. Perm J. 2019;23. pii: 18-025-err. doi: 10.7812/TPP/18-025-err.
- Chemoimmunotherapy in Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Case Report of a Long-Term Survivor Adjunctly Treated with Viscum album Extracts. Werthmann PG, Kindermann L, Kienle GS. Complement Med Res. 2019 Mar 20:1-4. doi: 10.1159/000496866.
- Effect of high-dose intravenous vitamin C on inflammation in cancer patients. J Transl Med. 2012 Sep 11;10:189. doi: 10.1186/1479-5876-10-189
- Modulation of Cytokines in Cancer Patients by Intravenous Ascorbate Therapy. Med Sci Monit. 2016 Jan 3;22:14-25
- Vitamin C for the critically ill: Is the evidence strong enough? Nutrition. 2018 Oct 22;60:185-190. doi: 10.1016/j.nut.2018.10.009
- Dietary intake and blood concentrations of antioxidants and the risk of cardiovascular disease, total cancer, and all-cause mortality: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies. Aune D, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2018. Am J Clin Nutr. 2018 Nov 1;108(5):1069-1091. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqy09
- Lyman GH, Greenlee H, Bohlke K, et al. "Integrative Therapies During and After Breast Cancer Treatment: ASCO Endorsement of the SIO Clinical Practice Guideline." Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2018;36(25):2647–2655.
- Horneber M, van Ackeren G, Linde K, Rostock M. "Mistletoe therapy in oncology." Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2008;(2):CD003297.
- Standish LJ, Sweet E, Kim E, et al. "Recurrence of Breast Cancer After Primary Treatment: A Matched Comparison Study of Disease-Free Survival in Women Who Do and Do Not Receive Adjunctive Naturopathic Oncology Care." Integrative Cancer Therapies. 2021;20:15347354211058404.
- Standish LJ. "Disease Free Survival in Breast Cancer Patients Who Receive Naturopathic Oncology Care." Integrative Cancer Therapies. 2021;20:15347354211058406.
- Block KI. "Does Adjunctive Naturopathic Care Decrease Survival Rates in Breast Cancer Patients?" Integrative Cancer Therapies. 2021 (commentary).
Intravenous Vitamin C and Evidence-Informed Medicine
- Chen, Q., Espey, M. G., Krishna, M. C., Mitchell, J. B., Corpe, C. P., Buettner, G. R., … Levine, M. (2005). Pharmacologic ascorbic acid concentrations selectively kill cancer cells: action as a pro-drug to deliver hydrogen peroxide to tissues. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102(38), 13604–9. doi:10.1073/pnas.0506390102
- Pathi, S. S., Lei, P., Sreevalsan, S., Chadalapaka, G., Jutooru, I., & Safe, S. (2011). Pharmacologic doses of ascorbic acid repress specificity protein (Sp) transcription factors and Sp-regulated genes in colon cancer cells. Nutrition and Cancer, 63(7), 1133–42. doi:10.1080/01635581.2011.605984
- Chen, Q., Espey, M. G., Sun, A. Y., Lee, J.-H., Krishna, M. C., Shacter, E., … Levine, M. (2007). Ascorbate in pharmacologic concentrations selectively generates ascorbate radical and hydrogen peroxide in extracellular fluid in vivo. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104(21), 8749–54. doi:10.1073/pnas.0702854104
- Chen, Q., Espey, M. G., Sun, A. Y., Pooput, C., Kirk, K. L., Krishna, M. C., … Levine, M. (2008). Pharmacologic doses of ascorbate act as a prooxidant and decrease growth of aggressive tumor xenografts in mice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(32), 11105–9. doi:10.1073/pnas.0804226105
- Hoffer, L. J., Levine, M., Assouline, S., Melnychuk, D., Padayatty, S. J., Rosadiuk, K., … Miller, W. H. (2008). Phase I clinical trial of i.v. ascorbic acid in advanced malignancy. Annals of Oncology : Official Journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology / ESMO, 19(11), 1969–74. doi:10.1093/annonc/mdn377
- Monti, D. a, Mitchell, E., Bazzan, A. J., Littman, S., Zabrecky, G., Yeo, C. J., … Levine, M. (2012). Phase I evaluation of intravenous ascorbic acid in combination with gemcitabine and erlotinib in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer. PloS One, 7(1), e29794. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029794
- Welsh, J. L., Wagner, B. a, Van’t Erve, T. J., Zehr, P. S., Berg, D. J., Halfdanarson, T. R., … Cullen, J. J. (2013). Pharmacological ascorbate with gemcitabine for the control of metastatic and node-positive pancreatic cancer (PACMAN): results from a phase I clinical trial. Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology, 71(3), 765–75. doi:10.1007/s00280-013-2070-8
- Vollbracht, C., Schneider, B., Leendert, V., Weiss, G., Auerbach, L., & Beuth, J. (2011). Intravenous Vitamin C Administration Improves Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Patients during Chemo-/Radiotherapy and Aftercare: Results of a Retrospective, Multicentre, Epidemiological Cohort Study in Germany. In Vivo (Athens, Greece), 25(6), 983–990. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22021693
- Ma, Y., Chapman, J., Levine, M., Polireddy, K., Drisko, J., & Chen, Q. (2014). High-dose parenteral ascorbate enhanced chemosensitivity of ovarian cancer and reduced toxicity of chemotherapy. Science Translational Medicine, 6(222), 222ra18. doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.3007154
Before you book
Common questions
How do I book an appointment?
- Choose the service on our appointments page.
- Click the picture or name to book your appointment.
We offer both Naturopathic and Nurse Practitioner services. Please be sure to select the correct practitioner when booking. If you have any questions, please call our office at 705.586.7873.
Which practitioners can I book with?
- Dr. Allan Price, B.Sc., ND
Naturopathic Doctor, Medical Director - Dr. Tara O’Brien, H.B.Sc., ND
Naturopathic Doctor - Phil Beauchamp, NP
Nurse Practitioner - Dr. Megan Brousseau, HBSc, ND
Naturopathic Doctor
Each takes bookings through their own online schedule. You can read about them on our about page, or go straight to appointments.
What happens at a first appointment?
When you visit Pure Wellness, your health care provider will complete a full assessment of your health and medical history so that any condition you are suffering from can be addressed in an appropriate manner.
When is the clinic open?
- Monday – Thursday: 9am – 5pm
- Friday, Saturday, Sunday: Closed
Our other practitioners have availabilities outside of these listed hours. Please visit their websites or contact them directly for more information.
Where is the clinic?
1933 Regent Street, Unit #10, Sudbury, ON P3E 5R2. We are located on the OUTSIDE of SouthRidge Mall.
Contact us for anything else.
Alongside your conventional treatment
Speak to Dr. Price
The cancer care clinic is supervised by Dr. Allan Price, B.Sc., ND, and books through his own online schedule. You can also call 705.586.7873.