Top Therapies Beneficial across Several Cancer Types

We are excited to announce our new evidence-based evaluation of Top Therapies Beneficial across Several Cancer Types. See our list of healing practices, healthy habits, and complementary therapies with the strongest evidence for improving survival, reducing metastases, reducing tumor size, or improving your cancer markers—in short, treating your cancer.

We provide a summary of each practice, habit, or complementary therapy's effectiveness, use by experts, and safety. You’ll also find second-tier practices, habits, and therapies, which are less effective or have less evidence or evidence with fewer cancer types. You’ll see that many of the therapies that we list work in tandem with conventional treatments.

This list can help you focus on the most effective practices, habits, and therapies. It can also give you a hint of the therapies that may be useful in some less common cancers, for which there is often little research on complementary therapies. Considering your specific situation—your type of cancer, stage, other treatments, other medical conditions, past experience, and more—is vital in determining the likelihood of benefit and risk with any of these therapies. We strongly recommend, if possible, having a trained medical professional guide you in using any of these therapies.

We're now hard at work assembling lists of therapies beneficial across several cancer types for optimizing your body terrain and reducing your risk of recurrence. Stay tuned for future announcements or bookmark our page, and feel free to contact us with feedback!

Quality and Sources of Herbs, Supplements & Other Natural Products

When used wisely, supplements can be a wonderful contributor to your health, addressing deficiencies and modifying your body terrain. But some caution is needed. Did you know that in the US, supplement manufacturers don’t need to prove the safety or effectiveness of the ingredients in their products? Nor are supplements regulated for potency or purity. Our Quality and Sources of Herbs, Supplements and Other Natural Products page can help you choose supplements and other natural products wisely.

We encourage you to consult knowledgeable physicians and practitioners experienced in using supplements and natural products for your medical situation. Whether you get products from your practitioners, from drug stores, or online, we recommend that you use independent rating sites—some of which we list on this page—to inform your choice of brands. Visit our recently updated page for comprehensive information and guidance.

Body Terrain Factors: Links with Specific Cancers

Modifying your body terrain—your internal environment—to make it inhospitable to cancer is one of the most important actions you can take in addressing cancer. Using a gardening analogy, we can say that cancer is the seed of a poisonous weed and your body terrain is the soil. Many weeds survive better in poor soil, and by building a healthy inner terrain you can deny a cancerous "weed" the environment it needs to thrive.

We are pleased to offer a new resource shedding light on the links between many types of cancer, including all the most common cancers, and individual terrain factors—such as inflammation, your microbiome, or glycemia—and conditions such as obesity that we know are related to these terrain factors. See our spreadsheet Terrain Factors and Cancer.

To learn more about nurturing an environment in your body that cancer doesn’t like, see our Body Terrain and the Tumor Microenvironment page.