Centers, Clinics and Clinicians
Overview
Many readers want to know what specific clinics, centers and clinicians they should consider.
How to respond to this need has been our greatest challenge at BCCT:
- People have widely differing experiences with the same clinic or clinician.
- Changes in staff and management can significantly alter the experience.
- Keeping an updated and accurate list of clinics current is a daunting task.
For these reasons, we do not recommend specific integrative health professionals. We provide professional directories you can use if you have no other information to guide you, plus recommendations from sources we trust, and finally National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers and the integrative services they provide.
Guidance on Finding an Integrative Provider
If your conventional physician is supportive, you may ask for recommendations for integrative practitioners. However, many excellent physicians do not feel qualified to offer such guidance. Some are simply not supportive.
We encourage you to use the information on this page as a starting point, but also go to your trusted colleagues for their recommendations, and invest some time in phone calls. Consider what you're looking for in a provider. Investigate our Questions for Your Care Providers page, which includes a section with tips for finding and choosing complementary medicine practitioners.
Integrative Medicine and Cancer Directories
These directories may help you find a practitioner in your area with these generally credible areas of training and expertise:
- Society for Integrative Oncology: Public Directory
- FON Consulting: National Directory of Integrative Oncology Providers
- Oncology Association of Naturopathic Physicians (OncANP)
- The Institute for Functional Medicine: Find A Practitioner referral network
- Graduates of the Fellowship in the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona
- Nancy's List: Integrative Therapies Practitioners and Healing Centers
Naturopathic Phone ConsultationsNaturopathic oncologists are common in some areas but not in others. If you cannot find a naturopathic oncologist near you, consider consulting by phone. Some FABNO-designated naturopaths provide phone consultations. |
Review of Clinics and Centers
Commentary from research or personal experience of our trusted advisors
- Moss Reports (purchase required): Ralph Moss, PhD, has written reports for many types of cancer which include “a serious assessment of cancer clinics not just in the US and Canada, but also central Europe, Mexico, Israel and China.”
National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Centers
Key Points Regarding Integrative Programs at Major US Cancer Centers
|
Many of the 55 NCI-designated cancer centers offer integrative medicine programs, but the extent and components of integrative approaches vary widely among centers.
Other Guidance
We provide related guidance on these pages:
- Advocates and Navigators
- Decision Making under Pressure
- Questions for Your Care Providers
- Which Options Best Suit You?
As you look through all your options, we encourage you to consider carefully what resonates for you personally.
We will be refining this section of BCCT as long as this site exists. We invite comments. We ask that comments be respectful, based on experience rather than hearsay, and focused on the intent of this section: to provide guidance to patients/caregivers in finding the best treatments for their needs.
We will be moderating comments for civility and appropriateness. We welcome comments that disagree with our conclusions or recommendations, but not those that are hostile, dismissive of other viewpoints or inappropriately marketing something. We look forward to positive engagement among our audience.
More Information
- Mao JJ. The state of integrative oncology: a new era. The ASCO Post.
- Latte-Naor S, Mao JJ. Putting integrative oncology into practice: concepts and approaches. Journal of Oncology Practice. 2019 Jan;15(1):7-14.
This work is licensed under a