OnCo
ideasIdea

Evidence-based integrative oncology in every cancer centre to meet demand safely

Offer the complementary approaches that have evidence (acupuncture for nausea and pain, exercise, mindfulness, yoga) inside the cancer centre, so patients do not seek them, and worse, elsewhere.

Demand for complementary approaches is high and unmet demand pushes patients toward unregulated providers. ASCO and the Society for Integrative Oncology have issued joint guidelines identifying interventions with supporting evidence for pain, anxiety, fatigue and nausea. The proposal is that cancer centres provide these services under clinical governance, staffed by trained practitioners, with clear statements of what is and is not evidenced, and that payers cover the evidenced components.

Hypothesis
Centres offering integrative services report lower use of unproven external therapies, higher disclosure of complementary use, and improved symptom scores compared with matched centres.
Rationale
Meeting a real need inside the system keeps patients within evidence-based care and builds trust for the conversations about what does not work.
What would test it
Matched comparison of centres with and without integrative programmes on external unproven therapy use, disclosure and symptom PROs; embedded randomised trials of specific components.
Maturity
being tested at scale
Who has to act
clinic
Cost to try
Medium ($1M to $50M)
Years to first evidence
3
Bottlenecks it attacks

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Pages like this

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technologies

1
Exercise & lifestyle oncology

bottlenecks

2
Misinformation and unproven therapiesToxicity and quality of life are undervalued