Friday, November 23rd will take place the conference Phytotherapy, ayurveda, anthroposophic medicine and oncology organized by AMeC - Association of Medicine and Complexity - in collaboration with the Me.Te.CO group - Complementary Medicine and Therapies in Oncology, which aims to make emerge an orientation on possible aspects of integration between Oncology and Phytotherapy.

The scientific director is dr. Alberto Laffranchi, Specialist in Radiodiagnostics and Radiotherapy Diagnostics Dept. for

Imaging and Radiotherapy, Division RD1. We interviewed him and we also got the opinion of other important experts.

Who is this day dedicated to medicines and complementary therapies for cancer?

This is a medical initiation with ECM, intended primarily for Doctors and Pharmacists, but also open to many other professional figures such as Biologists, Therapists ; finally, there is a session dedicated to patients in which patients and members of the Women's Health Association, who for many years have been active in the Milan area, will intervene, in particular to support women who have faced neoplastic disease.

What could be the contribution of the instruments of anthroposophical medicine in oncology?

Emanuella Portalupi answers: anthroposophical medicine proposes an integrated approach from the beginning. In particular with the original injectable preparations obtained from the mistletoe plant ( Viscum album L. ), which in various studies and systematic reviews have been shown to improve the qol (quality of life), reduce the side effects of conventional cancer therapies, reduce symptoms related to the pathology and probably to contribute positively to overall survival.

Anthroposophic medicine operates as a person-centered medical system: with anthroposophic medicines and with its own non-pharmacological therapies it builds for the patient an individual care path, inclusive of conventional cancer therapies, which begins at the time of diagnosis and continues for a long time during the follow up, to reconstruct a new possibility of health and resilience (the ability of man to face the adversities of life, to overcome them and to come out reinforced and even positively transformed) or to accompany the course of the disease and the needs of palliation.

The synergy with conventional therapies is very interesting, both because reducing side effects and the need for hospitalization also means encouraging the efficiency of conventional therapies, keeping time and reducing symptomatic drugs, and because there are severe and disabling symptoms in the oncological pathology. responsive to care, such as fatigue. This topic will be dealt with by Dr. Matthias Kröz, clinician and researcher at the Havelhöe hospital in Berlin, who has been studying fatigue for years and who will present the results obtained with the anthroposophical approach.

Get better during the chemotherapy cycles with Ayurvedic medicine. Does he give us an example?

Dr. Paolo Vitanti : The etymological ayurveda means science of life ; many purification, purification and massage techniques can be used to accompany the patient on a healing path. The dr. Gianluigi Marini adds: Ayurvedic medicine has an approach that identifies the biological functioning of the patient in a very specific way, therefore it prescribes accompanying therapies aimed at detoxifying him and optimizing his reactivity.

The fact that the patients themselves will intervene has intrigued us. How?

The afternoon session is dedicated to patients and will be moderated by dr. Massimo Saruggia who will accompany a patient in the story of his therapeutic experience . The lady will reveal to us her path and in particular the great importance for her in associating complementary therapies to chemo / radiotherapy, therapies that instinctively she would never have wanted to perform. At the end of the treatments, never suspended and always well tolerated, the control tests showed the complete disappearance of the neoplastic lesion, which was judged curable exclusively with Chemio / Radio, as it was now out of surgical limits.

For this lady the possibility of using treatments that minimized the side effects of oncological therapies was crucial and allowed her to choose this path that proved to be successful and in just six months led to clinical recovery. I remember that his initial reaction was to not want to perform any "official" oncological therapy. This presentation will be followed by an intervention by representatives of the Salute Donna association.

It seems to her that the law in Italy is moving towards a direction that will allow pharmacists to make phytotherapy an area of ​​their own unique prerogative that will penalize even more in the future the profound connoisseurs of plants whose craft rests on a real experience and passion "of shop "?

Dr. Paolo Vintani : the pharmacist has a university culture not only on the drug but also on the medicinal herbs, in the Pharmacy study program there are tests of pharmaceutical botany, pharmacognosy and pharmaceutical technique. Furthermore, the real problem in cancer therapy can be interactions; no workshop experience can be expected to replace a degree. Moreover, what would be the laws that would be the sole preserve of pharmacies?

If we refer to the legislation on cannabis, I think it is pleonastic to say that a substance included in the law on narcotic drugs can only be treated in pharmacies. I don't know there are other discriminatory laws.

Can chemotherapy still be effective?

Chemotherapy and new treatments, defined as biological, over the years have shown through rigorous scientific studies a fundamental efficacy in the treatment of many oncological diseases. The approach to the Oncological patient in ayurvedic medicine, anthroposophic medicine and phytotherapy is to explain to patients that it is not absolutely necessary to escape from it, but that they must learn to integrate it with "unconventional" approaches validated by scientific experiments or consolidated clinical evidence .

It should also be clarified that chemotherapy is undergoing profound changes, above all thanks to the advent of monoclonal therapies and biological modulators of cell replication. More and more, in fact, we are trying to identify new chemotherapeutic drugs, perhaps of plant origin, that have a targeted action on malignant cells, but a reduced effect on healthy cells, with the aim of increasing the effectiveness of chemotherapy against cancer and at the same time minimizing its effect on healthy cells.

Will there be interventions related to diet in the cancer patient?

Certainly yes, the dr. Franco Berrino himself, creator and manager of the Diana 5 Project (Study of prevention of breast cancer recurrence through nutrition and lifestyle designed by the IRCCS National Cancer Institute (INT) in Milan ). Berrino will illustrate the food that will be distributed during the breaks, summarizing the scientific rationale on the correct use of food. Ayurveda and anthroposophic medicine also pay particular attention to the diet, which allows the management of the individual patient to be personalized in the problem he is facing.

Urs Huber's intervention will focus on supportive treatments based on yeast plasmolysate (PLV). What is it about?

It is a natural vitamin supplement made from yeast plasmolysate (saccharomicyces cerevisiae) developed on a special culture medium enriched with herbal concentrate with known healthy activity such as thyme, licorice, lemon balm, angelica, sage and lavender. The yeast cells assimilate the active ingredients of the herbs by processing their own. At the end of all this complex osmotic process, the fully bio-available active ingredients are extracted from the yeast cells and transformed into tablets.

From this procedure 61 micronutrients are obtained, in particular, the B vitamins such as Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) and Vitamin B2 (Ribovlavin) ; the preparation does not contain gluten and GMOs and is also suitable for vegetarians or vegans.

The preparation is indicated above all for the states of convalescence, states of stress, senile deficiencies, difficulty of concentration, tiredness during the changes of season and also for intellectual fatigue.

Another interesting application is in ADHD Syndrome: the finished product acts on behavioral disorders with reduced distraction, aggression, impatience and fatigue. Dr. Huber will talk about an efficacy study of this preparation used to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy.

Compared to other European countries, where are we in Italy in terms of integrated support and a global approach to the person?

Far behind. The clear separation between conventional oncology and complementary medicines remains and requires a gradual consensus building and common practices on knowledge and practices. Other European countries such as Germany, Sweden and Switzerland offer an "integrated" oncology in hospitals from the outset.

Interesting and advanced examples of integration between Oncology and CAM (Complementary / Alternative Medicine) also come from the most prestigious Cancer Centers in the United States, where hundreds of millions of dollars of studies are funded each year.

Why did we organize this conference?

The ideas that led us to carry out this conference are: in Italy there are about 2, 500, 000 cancer patients, of which at least 1, 500, 000 have been treated for more than 5 years.

What we know about them is above all survival, the type of therapy performed, their effectiveness, but we know little or nothing about their quality of life .

The purpose of the conference is precisely to show concrete possibilities to improve the quality of life of cancer patients, through the diet and the use of herbal medicines and dietary supplements such as Curcuma, but also according to Anthroposophical, Ayurvedic Medicine.

Interesting the first afternoon session where patients will bring their testimony in the use of Complementary Medicine as a supplement to the Oncological therapies, therapies that, according to their testimony, have been able to greatly improve their quality of life, both during Chemo / Radiotherapy, Yes, see you later.

We believe these approaches lead to a real clinical advantage for patients, not only in the care phases, but also later.

In fact, the clinical data available to us encourage us to believe that the Complementary Therapies, if prescribed by medical personnel trained in the Oncology field, but also an expert in these disciplines, can significantly help the patient's immune system and therefore their use may favor the improvement of the quality of life of cancer patients and, from some clinical indicators, also an increase in the interval free from disease and survival.