Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Cancer Alternative Therapies
You have many choices to make about your cancer treatment. One choice you might consider is using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). CAM is the term for medical products and therapies that are not part of standard medical care.
CAM for cancer treatment involves caring for your mind, body, and spirit. Some methods focus on your breathing or body movements to help you relax. Other CAM therapies may use special foods, supplements, or diets. Examples of CAM therapies include acupuncture, chiropractic, and herbal medicines.
CAM claims can sound promising, but often, researchers don't know how safe some are or how well they work. Studies are ongoing to find out the safety and usefulness of many of these methods.
If you're thinking about using CAM along with your standard care, it's called integrative medicine. Some methods, such as acupuncture, might help with nausea, pain, and other side effects of cancer treatment.
A few reasons that people with cancer may use CAM include to:
- Help cope with the side effects of cancer treatments
- Ease worries about cancer treatment and related stress
- Feel that they are doing something more to help their care
CAM treatments don't work for everyone. Some products might interact with your other medicines. Talk to your health care provider about all the different types of treatment you use. Your provider can help you make sure that everything you're using for your cancer care works well together.
It sits within Cancers and Complementary and Alternative Therapies.
The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Cancer Institute.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Cancer Alternative Therapies
256 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- Personalized NK Cell Therapy in CBTM.D. Anderson Cancer Center
- A Study Investigating Alternate Schedules of Tislelizumab Plus Chemotherapy in Japanese Patients With First-line Advanced ESCCBeOne Medicines
- A Study of an Alternative Treatment Approach (Preoperative Radiotherapy, Then Mastectomy, Then Immediate Reconstruction Surgery) in People With T4 Breast CancerMemorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- A Study to Learn About the Study Medicine PF-07934040 When Given Alone or With Other Anti-cancer Therapies in People With Advanced Solid Tumors That Have a Genetic Mutation.Pfizer
- A Study of Opevesostat (MK-5684) Versus Alternative Next-generation Hormonal Agent (NHA) in Metastatic Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer (mCRPC) Post One NHA (MK-5684-004)Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC
- DESTINY-PANTUMOUR04AstraZeneca
Research already completed
- A Study of ASP2215 (Gilteritinib) by Itself, ASP2215 Combined With Azacitidine or Azacitidine by Itself to Treat Adult Patients Who Have Recently Been Diagnosed With Acute Myeloid Leukemia With a FLT3 Gene Mutation and Who Cannot Receive Standard ChemotherapyAstellas Pharma Global Development, Inc.
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- Cancer and Complementary Health Approaches: What You Need To KnowNational Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
- Complementary and Alternative MedicineNational Cancer Institute
- PDQ Cancer Information Summaries: Integrative, Alternative, and Complementary TherapiesNational Cancer Institute
Related Issues
- 6 Things to Know When Selecting a Complementary Health PractitionerNational Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
- Are Dietary Supplements Safe?American Cancer Society
- Cancer Therapy Interactions with Foods and Dietary SupplementsNational Cancer Institute
- Finding Cancer Information on the InternetAmerican Cancer Society
- Products Claiming to "Cure" Cancer Are a Cruel DeceptionFood and Drug Administration
Clinical Trials
- ClinicalTrials.gov: Cancer Alternative TherapiesNational Institutes of Health
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Complementary Therapies, Neoplasms. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Cancer Alternative Therapies, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.