CANCERTALK

Dr Dominique Lee has set out to bring change to the working environment of doctors and other healthcare workers. Raw personal experience provides her with the impetus for this initiative, and she is certain that until healthcare has a more caring and respectful culture, abuse and poor practice will prevail, good practitioners will continue to leave, and patients will continue receiving care that falls well short of their needs.

The culture of men in the UK is such that they are very unlikely to pursue any kind of supportive therapies. When it comes to healthcare, the stiff upper lip persists. However, a recommendation and delivery of auricular acupuncture for a range of unpleasant symptoms, when given by Philip Reynolds Consultant Therapeutic Radiographer to men with prostate cancer, results in a surprisingly high take up.

In recognition of the need for fundamental changes to our NHS, the government has launched Change NHS as a means to garner input from both the public and other organisations. For this episode we hear from two people with a lot to say about cancer care in the NHS: firstly Chris Lewis, outspoken patient advocate and founder of SIMPal, a charity set up to tackle cancer poverty, and secondly Versha Carter, currently receiving cancer treatment, but also the force behind the hugely successful Integrative & Personalised Medicine Congress, someone with a broad perspective on her own cancer care options.

Dr Sarah Partridge is a Clinical Oncologist specialising in head and neck cancers. She also has an abiding interest in mind-body therapies which has led her to train in Clinical Hypnosis. She finds this therapy to be an enormous resource as an alternative or adjunct to conventional methods of managing pain, stress, phobic reactions and more. She has already demonstrated its capacity to save healthcare costs in meaningful ways, and with her clinical experience backed up by all the evidence for its efficacy, Dr Partridge is in no doubt that Clinical Hypnosis has an important role to play in oncology.

Dr Deepak Ravindran is a Consultant in Pain Medicine and an Honorary Professor at Teesside University, with 20 years' experience playing leading roles in the NHS. He is pioneering fresh non-drug approaches to pain management that, alongside traditional methods such as drugs, surgery or ablation, espouse a range of complementary and lifestyle modalities that have been shown to be effective. Dr Ravindran highlights flawed thinking in regard to the nature of pain and the overpowering fear factors around pain as obstacles to a different style of management in which the provision of a safe space allows pain to subside naturally. Website: https://deepakravindran.co.uk/ Book: https://deepakravindran.co.uk/book/

Professor Lacey has been in the vanguard of developing Integrative Oncology in Australia. She is Director of Supportive Care and Integrative Oncology at the LivingRoom at Chris O'Brien Lifehouse in Sydney. With  20 years' experience as a palliative and supportive care specialist, she has dedicated the last decade to developments in Integrative Oncology, integrating  evidence-based complementary and lifestyle therapies with conventional treatments to provide 'whole person' care. In this episode she shares some of the successes and challenges of introducing new practices into cancer care.

Professor Robert Thomas is well know for his pioneering work trialling natural agents for use in cancer care and also for his books, including the recent 'How to Live'. Alongside his work as clinical oncologist, he has now been appointed to lead the oncology side of services at the Royal London Hospital for Integrative Medicine, for which he has some ambitious plans.

Dr Nasha Winters, herself a very long-term survivor of teenage cancer with a dire prognosis, is on a mission to make metabolic treatment of cancer available everywhere. Her rigorous approach to managing cancer is underpinned by her firm opinion that it is only by leaving all protocol-driven methodologies behind and espousing truly personalised care that long term remissions with good quality of life can be consistently delivered.

Professor Eran Ben-Arye has been in the vanguard of developments towards integration in Israel, as well as an influential global spokesperson on Integrative Oncology, through his roles as a Trustee of the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) and SIO Regional Ambassador to Europe and the Middle-East. His experience of pioneering integrative services affords him deep insights into the challenges to integration and the most successful strategies for success.

Santhosshi Narayanan MD is deeply involved in the development of Integrative Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, where she is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Palliative, Rehabilitative and Integrative Medicine. Dr Narayanan explains the services now on offer to those with cancer, the way these interface with conventional oncology services, and the impact that an integrative programme can have on patient experience and outcome. She also looks to the future and the additional services now in development.

Surgical Oncologist and Cancer Researcher Dr Emma Davies found herself thrust into the unenviable position of carer for her partner who had been diagnosed with an aggressive stage IV cancer. While always having more than a passing interest in a wider view of healthcare, this development pushed her to take a deep dive into the wealth of resources within Integrative Medicine available to help her wife in these extremely difficult circumstances. What she found has made a world of difference to them both: "This has all of the evidence behind it, it's all positive things, it has no detrimental effects to her health, improved her quality of life… all people need to know about this."

Joshila DeVile has been deeply involved in the exercise revolution that has overturned previous thinking in regards to cancer, and provided patients with a potent tool for self help – one that every patient deserves to be equipped with.

Kiki Marselou is an experienced pharmacist who decided to broaden her healthcare skills by training in nutrition and homeopathy, enabling her to support patients from the inclusive position of having a foot firmly in both camps.

Passionate about oncology and about the power of integration, Konstantina Stylianou returned to Cyprus from her studies and experience overseas, and has quickly and significantly affected the culture of the hospital where she works, to embrace a more integrative approach.

Dr Lucy Gossage is an NHS Oncologist, but also a highly respected sportswoman, with a trail of prestigious achievements. She has come to appreciate the significant benefits of exercise for those with cancer, particularly when undergoing treatment. Besides encouraging her own patients to engage, she is involved in charity work to bring the good news of the benefits of exercise to many more people with cancer across the UK.

The remarkable success that Gilly Bertram achieved in recovering fully from a life-threatening astrocytoma - through the judicious use of nutritional therapy and other lifestyle approaches alongside her conventional care - led her to train in nutritional therapy and to focus her work on supporting others with cancer. Gilly discusses the role of integrative approaches in relation to conventional care with CANCERTALK hosts Dr Penny Kechagioglou and Robin Daly.

With the spiralling number of people affected by chronic conditions resulting from lifestyle, Health Coaching is becoming an increasingly vital element of Healthcare. Prescribing lifestyle change is simple - adoption of those changes is quite another matter, and specialised support is absolutely essential for most patients. Izabella Natrins, CEO of UKI Health Coaching Association, talks to podcast hosts Senior Oncologist Penny Kehagioglou and Robin Daly about the work of the Association, which aims to embed health coaching firmly within UK healthcare.

Dr Victor Barley was a Consultant Oncologist and former Lead Clinician of Avon, Somerset and Wiltshire Cancer Services Network. Over a long career he developed a passion for integration which had its roots in his early experience of the gaps in care within the impersonal, mechanistic model of healthcare that prevailed at that time. Now retired, Dr Barley continues to look for ways to improve the experience of oncology patients by pushing for more patent-led, patient-centric cancer care in his role as Trustee of Penny Brohn UK.

Dr Robin Youngson trained as an anaesthesiologist in the UK and worked for more than twenty years in New Zealand, becoming an advisor to the NZ government and the World Health Organization on patient safety and strategies for putting people at the centre of healthcare. His passion is re-humanising healthcare and strengthening caring and compassion, and this led him to found the international HEARTS in HEALTHCARE movement, and to write Time to Care, eventually prompting him to leave mainstream healthcare altogether to pursue a relatively new technique which he finds brings rapid help to patients with long-term conditions, in a way that's not currently possible through conventional medicine.

Chris Lewis is a long-term survivor of cancer who has built a large following on social media through being prepared to 'tell it the way he sees it' about the state of cancer care in the UK and worldwide. He is openly critical of both the NHS and other key players in cancer care when it comes to listening to the needs of patients and building care that meets those needs. In this episode, Chris takes the opportunity to discuss the changes he wants to see with podcast hosts Senior Oncologist Dr Penny Kechagioglou and patient advocate Robin Daly.

Professor P G Roy is a highly experienced breast cancer surgeon who considers it extremely important to harness the intention of her patients, and to encourage them to engage in lifestyle interventions that can have a significant impact on their outcomes. While she is realistic about the prospects of the introduction of new lifestyle medicine services into our cash-strapped NHS, she finds that within normal appointments, she is able to effectively signpost to local, affordable resources.

Is chronobiology set to change the way treatment is delivered? Dr Robert Dallmann has been immersed in the science behind circadian rhythms for many years, and in this episode he describes some of the startling discoveries associated with our inner clocks and how much effect taking them into account could have on treatment outcomes.

The British Society for Integrative Oncology (BSIO) is the leading professional organisation for integrative oncology in the UK. Its stated goal is to promote the integration of conventional, nutritional, lifestyle and complementary medicine to improve the lives of people affected by cancer. It is rapidly becoming an established force for change in cancer care, with a growing membership and a range of annual events and services. Podcast host Dr Penny Kechagioglou is Co-chair of the BSIO, alongside this episode's guest, Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel, who brings us up to date with developments at BSIO.

When breast cancer surgeon Liz O'Riordan was herself diagnosed with breast cancer she was immediately confronted by just how little she understood about the experience of the women she had been treating, and about the devastating impact many of the everyday practices of oncology can have on patients. Now, several years on, and following some extremely debilitating treatment, Liz is passionate about sharing her insights gained from experiencing both sides of the picture of cancer care.

James Kinross is a consultant surgeon at Imperial College London and a senior lecturer in colorectal surgery. He is also an expert in the microbiome, with a particular focus in its role in the success of cancer treatments, both surgical and other. This has led to an interest in diet as the most accessible and direct route to affecting the microbiome.

Dr Stephen Kennedy is an experienced Consultant Oncologist with a 17 year background in the NHS. In parallel he has recently been developing his strong interests in nutrition and lifestyle measures as medicine and precision health, and investigating the wider determinants of health and disease prevention, particularly in cancer. Hosts Dr Penny Kechagioglou and Robin Daly explore Stephen's views on the potential of integration to answer some of the many issues facing cancer care, and to radically improve the patient experience and outcomes.

In this episode, our guest Aga Kehinde who has a background in nursing as a Cancer Nurse Specialist, has moved into the arena of coaching and wants to bring desperately needed change in oncology through coaching patients in what it means to take charge of and manage their healthcare, and oncology staff in learning an open-hearted and non-hierarchical way of relating to vulnerable patients.

Bobby Sira is a Pharmacist, specialised in Oncology, but also an Ayurvedic Practitioner. In this episode, hosts Dr Penny Kechagioglou and Robin Daly ask Bobby about the contrasting views of healthcare that his two disciplines espouse, what he feels Ayurveda and other complementary modalities can offer to mainstream cancer care, and the current obstacles to the integration he would like to see within the NHS.

Dr Shireen Kassam MBBS, FRCPath, PhD, DipIBLM, Consultant Haematologist at King's College Hospital, London with a specialist interest in lymphoma, is passionate about plant-based nutrition and lifestyle medicine for the prevention and reversal of chronic disease. In this episode, she discusses the potential for these approaches in the management of cancer, and also the issues involved in bringing them into the mainstream. With developments in other fields such as the sub-speciality of Preventative Cardiology, she proposes the introduction of Preventative Oncology as a means to broaden the resources of Oncology, from their current exclusive focus on treatment.

Since the 1980s, Peter Mackereth has been on a mission to get complementary therapies to people with cancer, their families and their carers. He has overcome innumerable obstacles to create services, deliver care, and simultaneously, to build the science behind complementary medicine. In this episode, Peter shares some of his unique insights into the challenges of integration, and the strategies behind his many successes.

In this episode, guest Dr Carol Granger, a registered nutrition practitioner with a degree in biochemistry and a Master's in microbiology, discusses the advances in nutritional science made in recent decades, as well as the openings that are now beginning to appear for true integration of nutritional science and conventional cancer care.

Dr Elizabeth Thompson is CEO and founder of the National Centre for Integrative Medicine. In this episode she discusses the development and progress of Integrative Oncology in the UK with regular hosts Dr Penny Kechagioglou, clinical oncologist, and Robin Daly, founder of UK charity Yes to Life.

Professor Rob Thomas is the UK oncologist who has been championing Lifestyle Medicine for well over a decade. He has designed and run high quality trials of natural products for use in cancer, investigating their potential to improve quality of life and outcomes, as well as publishing books for patients and regularly speaking to both the public and healthcare professionals about the many benefits of Lifestyle Medicine. In this podcast, Prof Thomas homes in on the many and often serious side-effects of conventional treatments for breast cancer, and how nutrition, exercise and lifestyle can help ameliorate these.

In this episode, regular hosts Dr Penny Kechagioglou and Robin Daly talk to Dr Sam Watts, an Ayurvedic doctor and cancer research scientist about the striking effects that our connection to nature - or lack of it - can have on our health and wellbeing, particularly if we have cancer.

Functional Medicine Practitioner Mark Bennett joins hosts Dr Penny Kechagioglou and Robin Daly to discuss the many ways that nutritional and lifestyle interventions can support people going through conventional cancer treatments.

Exercise Specialist Lizzy Davis and Nutritional Therapist Kirsten Chick join the CANCERTALK hosts, Senior NHS Oncologist Dr Penny Kechagioglou and Robin Daly of Yes to Life, to discuss the many significant challenges faced by people with cancer during lockdown, and to explore the potential of exercise and nutrition to support resilience and wellbeing.

Dr Penny Kechagioglou and Robin Daly describe the aims and content of the CANCERTALK podcast series.