Terry Styles, MD Abramson Cancer Center of the University of
Pennsylvania Last Modified: August 17, 2007 What is alternative
medicine? How about complementary treatments or integrative
treatments? Is this conventional medicine? How about
unconventional treatments? These terms are often used without
explaining the definitions. With the increased popularity of
unconventional medical treatments, these terms are being used
more and more. Here is a guide to help with the confusing
jargon. Conventional cancer therapies consist of those forms of
cancer treatment that are widely practiced and have been proven
beneficial in clinical research trials. These may include
surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and/or hormonal
therapy. These treatments are used in mainstream cancer centers
throughout the world. Unconventional cancer therapies are
basically any approaches to the diagnosis, treatment, and care
of the cancer patient that fall outside conventional cancer
treatments. Often, these are therapies not routinely t