Conventional Treatment vs. Complimentary

Hi Ben,

Sorry you have to be here, but seeking info is always a good idea. Yes, a good diet and exercise benefits everyone, so your girlfriend is smart to maintain those things. You might want to try posting in the alternative forum as those members might have some statistical info on alternative protocols. Complementary is a bit different, in that those who follow that path often get conventional treatment but use complementary practices to improve overall health, ease side effects etc.

I doubt that there are any long term, vetted, controlled research studies that will give you a head to head comparison of an alternative treatment vs. a conventional treatment.

As to side effects from chemo and/or radiation, yes they exist and are well documented. They are a known risk, but for many, they are short term. Do some suffer permanent damage? Yes, but that is known as well. I am in no way saying that chemo/rads are perfect or the right choice for all but the risks and rewards are well documented. I, personally, have not found the same level of controlled, research documented studies for any alternative therapy. There is lots of anecdotal evidence for all kinds of stuff from Laetrile to ingesting white kerosene and various diets, but little hard evidence. Perhaps that's why her conventional docs are unsympathetic and I would venture to guess that that's why no comparisons exist between the two (i.e. Alternative has little to no science based evidence to compare to conventional, nor would conventional docs find it ethical to put someone on an unproven alternative protocol for the purpose of a head to head study).

Anyway check out the alternative boards. You'llfind the vast majority of women on this site use conventional medicine, though many use complementary support as well, myself included. Wishing you both the best.

BenL, welcome to BCO, although I'm so sorry the reason you're here is your gf's bc. I am and always have been very into holistic care, including believing after my initial dx in 2008 that I could get a better handle on my future bc risk with naturopatic care over conventional medicine. And my dx line tells how that worked out for me -- which doesn't mean it might not work differently for someone else, or that I might not have had a re-dx sooner if I'd gone with just conventional med. And therein lies part of the problem. Breast cancer can be so individual and unpredictable, based a lot, I think, on genetic differences.

But the bigger problem from my point of view is that many docs -- conventional and alternative -- simply don't know what they don't know. In other words, although many things sound logical in principle, unless you focus exclusively on bc and have worked with hundereds of patients, docs just don't have enough experience to really know what truly works and what some of the pitfalls can be. And that's where conventional medicine (IMO) has an edge -- especially if you choose to be treated at one of the larger, university medical centers (preferably one of the NCI-designated ones), where they have those kinds of dedicated docs, and that kind of experience.

There are a three concerning things about your gf's hx. First, the fact that she's had a recurrence and/or a contralateral bc. Second -- and maybe most concerning -- is that her second bc is highly Her2+++. And third, the genetic mutation. And with those three issues, I'm not sure any alternative doc has enough experience to confidently guide her through dealing with all of those potentially aggressive factors.

I think my best advice to Audrey is to seek out multiple opinions. What I ended up feeling most comfortable with was an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center that had a significant integrative medicine program -- so that I knew that wouldn't roll their eyes at complementary therapies, and I could trust them to know the difference between pure unproven alternatives (e.g. baking soda or high ph water) the truly beneficial ones that I used and still use to complement to my conventional care.

Hope this helps. Good luck to you both! You sound like a wonderful man to have in her corner! Deanna