In September of 2013 the Integrated Health Clinic Cancer Care Centre launched a retrospective study to assess the impact of introducing integrative therapies into a cancer patient’s personalized treatment plan. In July, 2018 our Clinic Project Investigators completed the collection of data from the past eight (8) years for patients receiving integrative Cancer Care treatment at Integrated Health Clinic Cancer Care Centre. This data set was then provided to a third party resource to conduct a statistical analysis. This retrospective analysis was aimed at providing the first in-Canada clinical evaluation of our integrative Cancer Care protocols and their impact to Overall Survival (OS).
The purpose of this study was:
- To describe baseline characteristics on the use of hyperthermia as part of an integrative naturopathic treatment protocol at IHC, from June 2010 -> July 2018.
- To assess the safety profile for hyperthermia.
- To assess 5 year survival patterns for IHC’s top ten treated cancer types including glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), stage 4 colorectal cancer, and non-resectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
The resulting data was recently presented by Dr. Gurdev Parmar, ND at the 2018 Integrative Medicine Meeting (IMM) held in Germany, and the 2018 International Clinical Hyperthermia Society (ICHS) Conference held in Hungary.
Results show promising survival trajectories for glioblastoma multiforme, non-resectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma and colon cancer when integrative Cancer Care protocols are used as an adjunct to standard of care therapies. In addition, integrative Cancer Care protocols prove to be safe adjunctive treatments in patietn cancer care.
Further research is necessary to assess the effectiveness of integrative Cancer Care protocols using a larger sample population and over a longer period of time. Consequently, we are preparing to continue our research efforts and are developing a prospective data collection project on the adjunctive use of integrative Cancer Care protocols. Prospectively, we are aiming to provide further clinical data including Quality of Life (QOL) and Progression Free Survival (PFS). (in addition to Overall Survival (OS))
