In a conversation with CancerNetwork®, Nathan Goodyear, MD, provided an overview of how to implement integrative modalities that may effectively supplement standard-of-care oncologic therapies. Beyond the use of intravenous vitamin C and other flagship strategies at his institution, Goodyear addressed potential misconceptions and biases surrounding integrative oncology and discussed how to re-engage patients back into evidence-based care.

Goodyear, an integrative oncologist at the Williams Cancer Institute, described how conventional modalities like surgery and radiotherapy may damage the immune system during cancer treatment, and how integrative strategies aim to re-engage and stimulate areas like the gut microbiome to safeguard patient quality of life. He touched upon how practices such as fecal transplantation, fasting, and intratumoral pulsed electric field (PEF) therapy can convert unresponsive diseases into “hot” tumors that immunologically react to treatment.

Looking across the medical field entirely, Goodyear described how certain “camps” may perceive integrative oncology as an “alternative” form of medicine. Citing an article published in JAMA Network Open showing how patient trust in US hospitals decreased from 71.5% in 2020 to 40.1% in 2024, Goodyear noted how such divisiveness among healthcare providers may have played a role in losing the support of patients.

As part of mitigating the prejudicial, marginalizing attitudes towards integrative care as well as the infighting among physicians, Goodyear emphasized building bridges across holistic care, conventional oncology, and other fields to properly advance the treatment of patients. Having an open dialogue and debating the science behind new integrative modalities, he explained, will help in advocating for patients and establishing trust in their care teams.

“We must re-engage with [patients] through the science, through public debate and discourse with other doctors; that will re-engage the patient,” Goodyear stated. “More importantly, I think that will re-engage the patient’s trust in doctors. When we restore a doctor-patient relationship, medicine is going to get better, and patients are going to get better.”

Reference

Perlis RH, Ognyanova K, Uslu A, et al. Trust in physicians and hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic in a 50-state survey of US adults. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(7):e2424984. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.24984