Please note that I am not a medical professional and this information should be discussed with your providers to make sure they have no concerns about side effects or interactions with your current treatment. As a first step I highly recommend that you work with an integrative or functional oncologist who will support you in these treatments and collaborate with your conventional medical team.
| Treatment | Contraindications | Paper links | Treatment | Strength of evidence | Results | Pathways affected | Dosage | Trials |
| Ketogenic diet | Do not follow this diet if you have BRAF mutations in your cancer (common in melanomas) or pancreatic cancer | 1, 2, 3, 4 | 85-90% of calories coming from fat, 5-12% from protein, 5% or less from carbohydrates | 5 | Extension of life across multiple cancer types, reduced tumor growth, sensitization to radiation and chemotherapy | mTOR, insulin, glycolysis, glutamine and glutathione | Therapeutic level of ketosis (glucose to ketone index of 0-2) | Y |
| Berberine | Pregnant people, children under age 2, use caution if you have low blood pressure or diabetes, do not take with cyclosporine, consult your doctor if you are on diabetes medication | 1, 2 | Supplement taken multiple times a day | 3 | Reduces angiogenesis, reduced recurrence, cell apoptosis and reduces tumor growth in mice | Glutamine, insulin, glycolysis, mTOR, AMPK, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant | 1-10,000 mg per day | Only for colon adenomas |
| Curcumin | Do not use if you have surgery in the next week, are taking other blood thinners (other than aspirin), bile duct obstruction, cholangitis, liver disease, gallstones, or any biliary disease | 1, 2 | Supplement | 5 | Increases survival, reduces chemotherapy side effects, reduces angiogenesis, sensitizes tumors to chemotherapy and radiation | Anti-inflammatory, modulates caspase, p53, COX-2, growth factors, and certain cytokines | 1-8 g per day | Y, breast, colorectal, pancreatic cancer, adenomas |
| Vitamin D | Be cautious of vitamin D toxicity after excessive supplementation (test your vitamin D levels regularly) | 1, 2, 3 | Supplement | 4 | Increases survival, but it’s not clear that it reduces risk of having cancer | Reduces cancer invasiveness and metastisis, immunosupportive | 1500–2000 IU/day | Y, but mostly longitudinal studies of all cancer mortality |
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy | Pregnancy, pneumothorax, HBOT can induce seizures so people prone to seizures should avoid it or use extreme caution, patients with eye or ear conditions should consult with their providers | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | 1-2 hours in a hyperbaric chamber daily or as frequently as feasible | 4 | Improves outcomes after surgery and with chemotherapy or radiation, reduces radiation injury, reduces inflammation, and improves cognitive function in brain tumor patients | Oxygenates tumor microenvironment, reduces inflammation | 1-2 hours per day | Y, brain tumors, but a few studies on other cancers |
| Lipophilic statins (e.g. lovastatin) | Possibly contraindicated for ER+ breast cancer and glioma | 1 | Statin use prior to and concurrent with cancer treatment | 5 | Low mortality and metastasis associated with statin use | Induces autophagy of tumor cells, reduced cholesterol available for tumor cell growth (new cell wall genesis), sonic hedgehog suppression | Depends on the type of statin | Y, and also retrospective studies |
| Metformin | Metformin’s effect on cancer is controversial. A number of phase III studies have not shown an effect, but others have. It is possible that certain cancer types are susceptible to it. | 1 | Metformin before cancer incidence or as an adjunct cancer therapy | 3 | Lower cancer risk and mortality | Inhibits mTOR, induces apoptosis and autophagy, decrease insulin levels, decreases angiogenesis, reduces hypoxia | Varies | Y, and also longitudinal studies |
I believe the adjunct treatments for cancer I have included should be used in addition to conventional standard of care. Many of these alternative therapies work by sensitizes cancer to radiation or chemotherapy and do not replace it.
Also please note that not all cancers respond to all adjunct treatments. I try to explain those caveats under contraindications in the table, but I cannot cover all cases.
Brain Body Medicine 