onkommon.com
Decision
Integrative & complementary care
An honest conversation about everything else you are being told to take.
What it is
Almost every Indian cancer patient is offered something alongside their treatment, ayurvedic preparations, homeopathy, herbal supplements, dietary regimes, high-dose vitamins. Most do not tell their oncologist, because they expect to be dismissed.
That silence is the actual danger. Some preparations interact with chemotherapy, targeted medicines and anticoagulants. Some raise liver enzymes and get mistaken for treatment toxicity, causing a needed drug to be stopped.
When it is used
- At the first consultation, as a routine question, not a confrontation
- Before starting any new preparation
- Whenever liver or kidney results change unexpectedly
How the decision is made
- What you are actually taking, listed without judgement. We ask, and we write it in the record.
- Which of it is safe to continue alongside your treatment, which is not, and which we simply do not know about.
- Which supportive practices have reasonable evidence, exercise, nutrition, mindfulness, yoga, physiotherapy, and can be built into the plan properly.
- Where a claim being made to you is not supported, we will say so plainly, and we will not withdraw from your care if you continue anyway.
Consultation here. Exercise and rehabilitation through our physiotherapy service; mind-body support through psycho-oncology.
Who does what
What we handle, and what happens elsewhere
KPCIRC handles
- A non-judgemental medication and supplement reconciliation at every visit
- Interaction review against your specific regimen
- Structured exercise prescription and rehabilitation
- Nutrition support with evidence, not fashion
- Psycho-oncology and mind-body support
- A written note you can show any other practitioner you see
Performed and billed elsewhere
- Any complementary therapy itself, we neither provide, prescribe, nor take payment in connection with it
- Bring the actual bottles or packets to your appointment. Names are inconsistent and contents frequently are not what the label says.
- Be very careful with anything sold as a cancer cure, particularly if it is expensive and offered after you have been told options are limited. Ask us before you pay.
Questions to ask your own doctor
Take these with you. They work whether or not you are treated here.
- Will this interact with my treatment?
- Could this be the reason my liver tests changed?
- Is there anything I can do that actually has evidence behind it?
- If I want to continue this, how do we do it safely?
Support that goes with it
Where this is used
Cancers this commonly forms part of
Breast cancer
Including hormone-receptor positive, HER2-positive and triple-negative disease
Lung & thoracic cancer
Non-small cell and small cell lung cancer, mesothelioma, thymic tumours
Colorectal cancer
Colon and rectal cancer, bowel cancer
Prostate cancer
Cancer of the prostate gland
Liver cancer
Hepatocellular carcinoma, HCC
Not sure this is the right option for you?
That is exactly what a second opinion is for. Bring what you have, we will tell you what is missing and what the alternatives actually are, in writing.