Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Approaches

In this well-researched and thought-provoking look at cancer and its treatment, Lerner argues that several alternative options hold promise and should be further explored. The author, a MacArthur Prize Fellowship recipient who has served as a special consultant to the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment for a study of alternative therapies, notes that the reasons why such alternatives are sometimes not taken seriously are as often the fault of their practitioners as of the establishment bureaucrats who categorically consider them quackery. He evaluates complementary programs--spiritual, psychological, nutritional, pharmaceutical--and also describes unconventional approaches in Japan, Germany, India, Great Britain and Canada. Make no mistake: Lerner does not advise forsaking conventional for alternative treatment. In fact, he believes that people with cancer should be under the care of an oncologist. This is a must read for people facing decisions in their cancer treatment and for anyone who cares for them. (June)