This short overview is based on a talk I recently gave to the members of Sweet Louise, a New Zealand charity for the support of people with incurable breast cancer.

Complementary therapies can be loosely defined as those not included in orthodox medical training or practice, though this can change, for example acupuncture has been used in pain clinics for many years. Some therapies involve physically touching the body – examples include massage, reflexology, acupuncture. Others involve taking substances by mouth – herbal remedies, homeopathy, flower essences, special diets. Then the mind body therapies such as relaxation, meditation, yoga, visualisation and guided imagery, energy healing. And creative therapies with art, music, writing and dance. Several types can be combined.

They are often known as “natural” therapies, and the same ones may be called “complementary” when used alongside orthodox medical treatments, and “alternative” when used instead. The “integrative” approach combines them both but has been slow to get established, perhaps because of prejudice and misunderstanding on both sides. All these therapies are grounded in the “holistic” approach, which aims to balance the whole person in body, emotions, mind and spirit, and mobilise the potential for self-healing. This is in contrast to the approach of conventional medicine, which uses powerful drugs, surgery or radiation to suppress symptoms and destroy disease, and in which patients have a passive role. Both approaches have their place and can often be used alongside each other.

Surveys show that as many of two thirds of women with breast cancer are using one or more natural therapies, and there is good evidence that they can improve quality of life – helping to relieve physical symptoms such as pain and nausea, mental symptoms such as anxiety and depression, reducing the side-effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. They appeal because, in general, they are safe and natural and many of them are pleasant to receive. When I was practising with the Bach flower remedies, many of my clients told me they wanted a therapy that treated them as a unique person, rather than just one more case of a diseased body part.

While all the modalities have specific effects, their benefit is partly due to their positive influence on mind-body relationships. The self-help element, especially with therapies that require some active user participation, enhances a sense of choice and control. Spending time with an understanding therapist in a relaxed setting is comforting. Expectation of improvement can help to bring it about. Such general factors are important, and it is a mistake to devalue them as “just placebo”.

A key question is whether using these therapies can lead to a longer life expectancy or even to remission of the cancer. Many individual cases of remarkable recovery have been reported. But there are few formal research studies on this aspect, and it is a difficult thing to investigate for many reasons – for example treatments are used in individual combinations rather than standard protocols, and patients’ beliefs and motivation affect the outcome.

Some of the therapies carry risks, for example herbal remedies can have adverse interactions with prescribed drugs; massage and acupuncture occasionally cause physical injury. They can be expensive. The field is not tightly regulated and, while most therapists are skilled and honest, there are a few self-styled practitioners who cause more harm than good by making unrealistic promises of curing cancer while advising clients to refuse conventional treatment that would have been effective.

More detail about these topics, with case histories, can be found in some of my non-fiction books.