Traditional Treatments
Each treatment below is a link to a page that explains how they work against different cancer types.
Alternative Treatments
Many people with cancer consider using one or more kinds of alternative or complementary therapies and some rely totally on a specific treatment. The best approach is to look carefully at your choices. Talk to your medical advisory team about any method of treatment you are using or thinking about using.
Search for a specific alternative treatments: Use the search box in the upper middle or right depending on your Internet device and enter in a treatment or keyword. This will bring up results from hundreds of PDF file that match what you are looking for. You can also look below in the
Can I safely Use an Alternative or Complementary Therapy?
There are many complementary methods you can safely use along with standard treatment to help relieve symptoms or side effects, to ease pain, and to help you enjoy life more. Even if they aren’t fully tested, you can choose methods that don’t usually cause harm and won’t interfere with your cancer treatment.
Will my insurance cover alternative and complementary therapies?
Many insurance companies are starting to cover some of the more widely accepted complementary methods of treatment. Many major insurers, including Blue Cross and Medicare, cover one or more complementary methods of treatment. Acupuncture and chiropractic therapy are most often covered. Contact your insurance company to find out what your plan covers.
If possible, get your doctor to write you a referral or a recommendation for the complementary therapy you want to use. Many insurance companies require that the method be shown to be reasonable and medically necessary, and it may help later on to have your doctor’s recommendation.
Insurance companies usually will not cover methods that have not been proven to be helpful for the illness or symptom you have.
Other names and descriptions
Treatments that are not used in mainstream medicine may be described as unconventional, non-conventional, and non-traditional by mainstream medical doctors. These terms may be used to describe any complementary or alternative therapy. Some treatments, such as traditional Chinese medicine or Native American healing, are also used in complementary or alternative therapies. Of course, to the person who is part of the culture practicing these treatments, their native methods are usually called traditional and Western medicine is the non-traditional way.
SOURCE: American Cancer Society – 03/31/2015