Click here to return to book details FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Email: publicity@regnery.com Phone: 202-216-0600 AS INCREASING NUMBERS OF CANCER PATIENTS COMBINE ALTERNATIVE CARE WITH CONVENTIONAL CARE, AN "INTEGRATED TREATMENT PLAN" IS ESSENTIAL Cancer coach and survivor Carole O'Toole clarifies the options Of the one million Americans diagnosed with cancer every year, 70% choose complementary therapies, such as acupuncture, massage, and guided imagery, to support conventional cancer treatment for coping with their illness. "The responsibility for selecting complementary therapies while facing such a serious illness can be daunting," says cancer coach and cancer survivor Carole O'Toole in her thorough new book, HEALING OUTSIDE THE MARGINS: The Survivor's Guide to Integrative Cancer Care (LifeLine Press; 0-89526-193-6; $21.95). O'Toole — given an 18 month survival in 1994 with a relatively rare, advanced and virulent form of breast cancer — knows first-hand how effective combining therapies can be and how confusing the options are. "I believe that both saved my life," O'Toole says of conventional and complementary treatments, "and feel extremely blessed to have chosen a more integrative form of care." With growing numbers of licensed and credentialed providers of reliable and effective complementary care as well as organizations that provide credible and objective information on them, O'Toole's mission is clear: "We need to share more information that supports cancer patients' choices, not inhibit this process. Media coverage, like a recent Prime Time Live segment, that perpetuates negative stereotypes of patients using complementary therapies as naive and desperate, and those who offer alternative treatments as quacks and charlatans, discourages patients from becoming involved in their health care." Not a rose-colored endorsement of complementary therapy, she recommends that "all patients seek out the best conventional treatment" and amend their care with complementary modalities. Bolstered by a surge of hospital cancer-care programs that have adopted a variety of complementary therapies, as well as a recent Harvard Medical School study which reveals that 50% of patients who tried alternative therapy reported continual use of the methods 11 to 20 years later, O'Toole sees that complementary care is here to stay. HEALING OUTSIDE THE MARGINS provides a variety of tools needed to reach decisions and establish a personalized, integrated plan. O'Toole — now a coach to others who face this overwhelming array of choices — offers accessible, up-to-date information on 25 popular complementary therapies, from acupuncture to osteopathy to spiritual direction; whether to use them; what to use and when, and how and where to find them. She also explains the role and value of both conventional and complementary cancer therapies, assembling and communicating with a health-care team, and coordinating care. Called a "wise, compassionate and illuminating approach to dealing with cancer.... A sensible road map to guide the baffled cancer patient out of the wilderness of well-meaning but conflicting advice that invariably shows up," by noted guided imagery therapist and author Belleruth Naparstek, HEALING OUTSIDE THE MARGINS is a well-organized, timely and essential guide for anyone living with cancer. Click here to order from Amazon: Click here to return to book details