Review Article Integrative Oncology: Best of Both Worlds—Theoretical, Practical, and Research Issues

Copyright © 2013 Holger Cramer et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. More andmore cancer patients use complementary therapies. As themajority of patients do not disclose their use of complementary therapies to their oncologists, they expose themselves to possible detrimental effects from the therapies due to drug interactions. To meet the needs of patients and health care professionals on valid information on complementary therapies, the collaborative research project “Competence Network Complementary Medicine in Oncology—KOKON”, an interdisciplinary network for complementary medicine research in oncology, was established. Moreover, Integrative Oncology, a combination of conventional and evidenced-based complementary therapies delivered using a comprehensive approach, is now increasingly used in the United States and Europe. A variety of different Integrative Oncology models have been established worldwide including an expert-based model at the Kliniken Essen-Mitte, Essen, Germany and a patient-centered, evidenced-based approach at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Both models are briefly reviewed. More research is needed and Comparative Effectivenes