Abstract
This issue begins the final year in which Integrative Cancer Therapies will appear in print. As of January 1, 2016, all articles in Integrative Cancer Therapies are being made available for free download under our Open Access policy. We will publish 4 print issues in 2016, for circulation to institutional libraries only, but after that, articles will only appear online. We are very pleased with the response to our new Open Access policy, which can be found in full on our website, http://ict.sagepub.com. Our rate of submissions has actually increased since we began to apply our Article Processing Charge to manuscripts submitted after November 1, 2015. We look forward to a successful continuation of the journal under this new financial model.
This issue contains a guest editorial on the role of the biopsychosocial model of palliative care in cancer. Steven Greer and Marie Joseph of St Raphael’s Hospice argue for the integration of mind-body medicine into the biomedical model of hospice care through a series of case studies. Dr Greer’s long commitment to the biopsychosocial model has been an inspiration to the clinical practice of integrative oncology for many years.
A further extension of the theme of palliative care comes in a survey of palliative care patients and palliative care medical personnel, conducted by Ralph Mücke of the Klinikum Lippe GmBh and other colleagues in Germany. Mücke and colleagues asked both health professionals and patients about the use of complementary and alternative (CAM) therapies in palliative care. Interestingly, 99% of the nurses surveyed by this group are interested in CAM therapies for palliative care! Differences of opinion among patients and professionals emerged, however, on the question of what types of CAM are most relevant, and on the degree of scientific evidence necessary to recommend CAM therapies.
Yasueda Asuka and colleagues at Osaka University have systematically reviewed literature in the controversial area of antioxidants and cancer therapies. Focusing on randomized trials in which antioxidants are given along with chemotherapy or radiotherapy, they examined almost 50 such studies, incorporating a wide variety of natural antioxidant compounds. Although chemotherapy and radiotherapy do work at least in part through free radical–based mechanisms, the authors were not able to find many cases in which antioxidants verifiably reduced the efficacy of cancer treatment. The sole example was a study of radiotherapy, with harms seen specifically in patients who smoked tobacco during radiation. On the other hand, it was difficult to distinguish whether antioxidants had specific benefits for therapy, since so many different antioxidants were used in such a wide variety of cancer types and treatment regimens. This thorough and careful review, based on randomized trials, should add a dose of realism to the continuing controversy over antioxidants and cancer therapy.
Anthony Zhang and colleagues at RMIT University School of Health Sciences in Melbourne, Australia, performed a meta-analysis of traditional Chinese herbal formulas used alongside oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy for colon cancer. The analysis found an increase in response rate for patients treated with adjunct herbal therapy. The authors then apply a sensitivity analysis to the individual herbs in the various herbal formulas used. They are able to show that 3 of the herbs, all of which inhibit colon cancer growth in vitro, contributed more to the observed benefits than other herbs in the formulas.
Seyed Hosseinimehr and Azar Aghamohammadi of Mazandaran University of Medical Science in Sari, Iran, survey natural remedies for oral mucositis in a narrative review. A surprising number of such therapies have been tested in oral mucositis. One of the interesting substances is honey. Honey has been used since ancient times for wound care. This usage has carried forward through time, updated with a 2015 Cochrane Collaboration review. 1
Jacob Hill at the Helfgott Research Institute in Portland, Oregon, with colleagues at a number of different institutions, presents results of a survey of naturopathic oncologists aimed at defining a philosophical basis for several important concepts in this discipline. The survey protocol comprised questions on integration with conventional medicine, evidence-based medicine, patient education, and safety and training for naturopathic oncologists. This survey will be important in defining clinical ethics, philosophy, and research development in this emerging field.
Bladder cancer is a common tumor that is very prone to recurrence after surgery. Yang Xihua and colleagues at the Shanxi Cancer Institute in Taiyuan, China, have researched the effects of a Chinese herbal formula, Su Fu’ning Lotion, on bladder cancer cells in vitro and in a mouse model. The formula was, appropriately, applied through intravesical instillation in the mouse model and was able to prolong the life of the mice significantly.
Ren Liansheng, also at the Shanxi Cancer Institute, studied the effects of protosappanin B, a phytochemical from Sappan Wood, a traditional Chinese herbal constituent. Protosappanin B also was able to inhibit bladder cancer cells in vitro as well as in the mouse model. Sappan Wood is made from a tree in the legume family, Caesalpinia sappan, native to tropical Asia. Another important product of this species is a red dye, brazilin, also known to have anticancer properties.
Traditional Chinese medicine includes animal products as well as plants and phytochemicals. This issue concludes with articles on 2 animal products. Chen Hing and colleagues at the Institute of Chinese Material Medica, China Academy of Medical Sciences, examine the anticancer properties of oyster shell. Calcium appears to have anticancer properties itself, but these investigators wanted to determine if oyster shell has other anticancer constituents besides calcium. This was investigated by feeding mice with carcinogen-induced tongue cancers either oyster calcium or calcium-depleted oyster shell powder.
Finally, in an examination of a medicinal constituent that some might find rather alarming, but that has had a place in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries, Zhang Yanmin and colleagues at Xi’an Jiaotong University in Xi’an, China, tested Eupolyphaga sinensis, a species of flightless, wingless cockroach, for its potential breast cancer–inhibiting effects. It is well known that insects have “chemical weapons” used in defense against predators, just as plants and fungi may use phytochemicals as chemical weapons against insects and other animals. Our many plant-derived chemotherapy drugs likely serve such purposes: cattle and horses, for instance, have been found dead after grazing on taxane-containing yew trees. China has a tradition of taking advantage of such chemical weaponry from both plant and animal sources, cockroaches being just one faunal example. Notably, cockroach farming is now a major project of rural industrial development in China, as worldwide demand for Chinese medicines expands—or should we say, mushrooms?
As Integrative Cancer Therapies moves ahead with its Open Access publishing model, we do wish to assure our readers that our editorial standards will remain constant. We are indebted to our scientific reviewers for their critical assistance with the task of maintaining editorial quality. More than 200 reviewers from around the globe aided with our review process during 2015. We now recognize their deeply appreciated efforts in the following list of their names. Our sincere thanks go to the following:
Luca Agnelli, Muhammed Akash, Angel Alonso-Castro, Lise Alschuler, Lorraine Anderson, Paula Andrade, John Anto, Maria Armanm, Kristen Arthur, Gary Asher, Brett Bade, Barbara Baker, Manjeshwar Baliga, Ting Bao, Ben Qiwen, Manoj Bhat, Bian Zhao-Xiang, Penny Block, Heather Boon, Amit Budhraja, Adomas Bunevicius, Rebecca Campo, Cao Ni Da, Soraya Casla, Ricardo Cavalcandi de Albuquerque-Junior, Jyothi Chakrabarty, Debrup Chakraborty, Chang Chia-Che, Alejandro Chaoul, Chen Pei-Ni, Chen Yung-Hsiang, William Cho, Choi Kyung-Eun, Jesper Christensen, Chu Yiwei, Chung Jing-Gung, Heather Corwin, Holger Cramer, Colin Curtain, Patricia Cury, Dai Yue, Padma Das, Asok Dasmahapatra, Alejandra de Moreno de Leblanc, Beverly de Valois, Meral Demiralp, Joshua Denham, Chetana Dinkar, Sally Dodds, Graeme Donald, Erin Donovan-Kicken, Patrick Dougherty, Jozsef Dudás, Subhadra Evans, Ammad Farooqui, Feng Yibin, Carla Fernandes, César Fernández-de-las-Peñas, Mary Fisher, Peter Fisher, Brian Focht, Michael Foley, Shirley Fong, Luann Fortune, Giovanna Franconi, Heidi Fritz, Vanessa Fuchs-Tarlovsky, Bonnie Furzer, Daniel Gallaher, Gan G. G., Suraj Konnath George, Hazem Ghebeh, Mamdooh Ghoneum, Catherine Granger, Heather Greenlee, Dianne Groll, James Grutsch, Charlotte Gyllenhaal, Sjoerd Hak, Harald Hamre, Prakash Hande, Nicolas Hart, He Xiaojuan, Patricia Hentosh, Peter Hogg, Pernille Hojman, Lynne Howells, William Hrushesky, Hsieh Yih-Shou, Jutta Huebner, Hwang Kyung-A, Melissa Hyde, K. Ina, Pasquale Innominato, Marisa Ionta, Toshinori Ito, Ali Shalizar Jalali, Jang Ik Soon, Valerie Jenkins, Shaik Kamal, Ahmed Kaseb, Goular Kasymjanova, Rajesh Kesharwani, Kim Sun-Hee, Robert Kiss, Alexander Koch, Ari Koivisto, Sensuke Konno, Akhilesh Kumar, Ajaikumar Kunnumakkara, Deep Kwatra, Cecile Kyrø, Elena Ladas, Cynthia Leaver, Alan Yueh-Luen Lee, Lee Ho-Young, Lee Huei-Jane, Jennifer Leng, Teresa Lesiuk, Shahar Lev-ari, Liang Wei-Zhe, Lim Chuan-Bian, Lin Yi-Hsien, Liu Wenchao, Vatsala Maitin, Deba Mandal, S. Manoharan, James Mao, Inês Marques-Aleixo, Y. Matchim, Michelle McKinley, Katrin Milbury, Alexander Molassiotis, Gnanasekar Munirathinan, Vishnu Murali, Tomohiro Nabekura, Nalini Namasivayam, Robert Newman, Chukwuemeka Nworu, Byeongsang Oh, Oluwadamilola Olaku, Ouyang Dong-Yun, Oxana Palesh, Jaclyn Palmer, Morika Papież, Panagiotis Pelekasis, Janice Pellow, Antonio Pérez-Martínez, Sjaak Pouwels, Sarah Prinsloo, Raghavendra Rao, Lavanya Reddivari, Stanley Rockson, Tobias Romeyke, Kieron Rooney, Dan Rubin, Nancy Sacks, Didier Saey, Stephen Sagar, Amirhossein Sahebkar, Ajit Saxena, Stefan Schneider, Dugald Seely, Sheilla Shanes, Johannah Shergis, Julie Silver, Judith Smith, Eri Srivatsan, Peter Stacpoole, Leanna Standish, Diana Steinmann, Robert Stoehr, Stephen Strum, Kathleen Sturgeon, Su Chun-Li, Bruce Su’a, Izreen Supa’at, Linda Tavolacci, Emmanuel Taylor, Ramar Thangam, Tian Changwei, Lorenzo Tonetti, Tzang Bor-Show, Yasuhito Uezono, Natalia Vallianou, Naciye Vardar Yagli, Sara Vargas, Wang Fengshan, Wang Piwen, Wei Pin-Kang, Joachim Weis, Weng Ching-Feng, Mostafa Yakoot, Eddy Yang, Peiying Yang, Yang Wei-Hsiug, Yang Xiaobing, Sriram Yennurajalingam, M. A. Zenkova, Zhan Yingzhuan, Zheng Shizong, Zheng Yi, Zhou Qun, Zhu Xiongzhao, and Eva Zopf.