Alternative Therapies Getting Notice Through Best Case Series Program

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Two groups of researchers who shared the results of their complementary and alternative therapies for cancer with the National Cancer Institute have received support to do additional research.

NCI is launching a campaign to encourage other complementary and alternative medicine practitioners to submit their data to its Best Case Series Program, designed to evaluate early data on alternative medicine approaches to cancer. “We want to proactively solicit submissions from complementary and alternative medicine practitioners who feel they have a successful approach to cancer treatment,” said Jeffrey D. White, M.D., director of NCI’s Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

The Best Case Series Program has existed at NCI since 1991 to apply the principles of evidence-based medicine to therapies that have not yet been put to the test of rigorous clinical trials. Just four or five of a practitioner’s best successes are enough for a review. “The Best Case Series is a very crude way to look for kernels of information to see if there is any justification to go after additional data,” White said.