What’s New!
Welcome to Our Dear Readers
It is a privilege to welcome you again here.
As a retired medical oncologist who now devotes his time and heart to Integrative Oncology, I continue to be inspired by the remarkable resilience of the human spirit and its innate capacity to heal. Over more than 40 years of caring for people with cancer, I have witnessed countless stories of courage, transformation, and renewal. These experiences have convinced me that while medical science has advanced in extraordinary ways, true healing reaches beyond what can be measured in scans, lab tests, or clinical trials.
Healing often happens in ways we cannot fully explain: through love, connection, meaning, and the integration of body, mind, and spirit. This is the essence of Integrative Oncology.
Why Integrative Oncology Matters
Cancer care is not only about eradicating disease; it is about supporting the whole person and their family through one of life’s most challenging journeys. Integrative Oncology brings together the strengths of two powerful worlds:
- Conventional Medicine: The best of evidence-based cancer treatments: surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted agents, radiation, and more.
- Complementary Healing Practices: Modalities that reduce stress, manage side effects, promote resilience, and nurture quality of life, such as acupuncture, massage, nutrition, yoga, meditation, counseling, art therapy, music therapy, and spiritual support.
- A Whole-Person Perspective: Care that goes beyond disease management to honor each individual’s story, values, relationships, and inner resources for healing.
The goal is not only to extend life but to enrich it, to empower patients and families to find strength, hope, and meaning alongside medical care.
A Legacy of Integrative Care in San Diego
From 1995 to 2015, I had the profound honor of co-founding and leading the Integrative Oncology Program at the San Diego Cancer Research Institute, which was based at the San Diego Cancer Center in North County. Over two decades, this program grew into one of the nation’s most comprehensive and truly integrated models of cancer care.
Much of the credit for its success belongs to our extraordinary Integrative Coordinator, Mary Hollander, R.N., Dr. Paul Brenner, and to the countless dedicated volunteers who poured their time, energy, and love into supporting our patients. Their compassion, generosity, and unwavering presence formed the very heartbeat of the program. My gratitude to them is immeasurable and everlasting.
What made this program so unique was both its scope and its spirit. Within a state-of-the-art cancer center, patients received the best that conventional medicine had to offer: chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, targeted therapies, while also being embraced by a wide array of integrative services: acupuncture, massage, nutrition counseling, yoga, meditation, biofield therapies (energy
medicine), qigong, art and music therapy, pet therapy, spiritual care, and support groups were not “extras,” but part of a coordinated healing environment.
Perhaps most importantly, the program fostered true collaboration. Physicians, nurses, all medical staff, integrative practitioners, spiritual counselors, and volunteers worked side by side, guided by a shared vision: to care for the whole person, not only for the disease. Patients and families often described the center as more than a treatment facility, it was a sanctuary of healing, a place where they felt seen, supported, and embraced as human beings navigating a profound life challenge.
A Patient’s Story
I recall one patient, let’s call her Maria, who came to us in the midst of advanced cancer treatment. While her chemotherapy was helping, the toll it took on her physically and emotionally was overwhelming. She suffered from pain, fatigue, nausea, and deep anxiety.
At the Cancer Center, Maria not only received her medical treatment but also found a circle of support through integrative care. Weekly acupuncture sessions eased her nausea. Gentle massage soothed her pain. Nutrition guidance helped her regain energy. In meditation and support groups, she discovered new strength and resilience. And perhaps most importantly, the staff, nurses and
volunteers who sat with her, held her hand, or simply listened, gave her the gift of human connection.
Over time, Maria often said she no longer felt like “just a cancer patient.” She felt whole again, as a mother, a partner, a spiritual being. Even as she faced uncertainty, she found hope, meaning, and peace. Her story, like so many others, reminds me of the power of integrative oncology to restore dignity, humanity, and healing in the midst of illness.
To this day, I have not seen another cancer program that brought together conventional and complementary care with such depth of integration, compassion, and dedication. Although the program closed in 2015, its spirit continues to inspire me and many others. The lessons learned, and the lives touched, remain a guiding light in the ongoing movement to make Integrative Oncology a standard part of cancer care everywhere.
Continuing the Journey at UC San Diego
I am honored to currently serve as the Interim Executive Director of the UC San Diego Centers for Integrative Health (CIH). Here, remarkable work continues to advance integrative medicine across the university and community. Programs in integrative and functional medicine, osteopathic manual medicine, mindfulness, nutrition, traditional Chinese medicine, massage, integrative pain management, and more are flourishing.
While it is difficult to replicate the level of integration we had at the San Diego Cancer Center in North County, UCSD’s commitment to integrative health represents an important evolution. It offers hope that a more holistic, whole-person model of care can one day become the standard, not the exception. Essential, not optional.
The Heart of Integrative Oncology
At its core, Integrative Oncology means:
- Patient-Centered Care. Every person’s journey is unique. Care should be tailored to honor each individual’s needs, values, and choices.
- Whole-Person Healing. Healing must address not only the body, but also the mind, emotions, spirit, and relationships.
- Collaboration, Not Competition. Conventional and complementary therapies work best when they support, not replace each other.
- Empowerment Through Education. Patients and families thrive when they are informed, supported, and empowered to take part in their own healing.
- Science and Spirit Together. We honor evidence-based medicine while recognizing that some aspects of healing will always transcend scientific measurement.
Looking Ahead
My vision is that Integrative Oncology becomes a standard of care, woven into every cancer program, accessible to every patient, and embraced as a vital part of healing.
Through this site, we will continue to share stories, history, reflections, and resources drawn from decades of experience in this field. My deepest wish is that these offerings may inspire patients, families, caregivers, and practitioners alike, and remind us all that healing is always possible, even in the face of illness.
Healing is not just about fighting disease. It is about cultivating wholeness, meaning, love, and peace.
With gratitude for joining us on this journey,
Daniel Vicario, M.D.
Resource Highlights
A new section of Resources has been added just for Veterans. We salute our brothers, sisters, and siblings in service, and know that they need support just as much as anyone else. See those links here.
At SDCRI we honor Caregivers every day and every month!
We’ve added a whole new section to our Suggested Reading page just for Caregivers.
Check out those and all the other wonderful books here.
We’ve added a new webpage to the Resource page.
TakeCare.org – “When you think of health, what comes to mind? Too often we think of health as only something physical. But our health and well-being are more than that. Finding balance and connection between our Mind, Body, Spirit, and Community can help us truly be healthy – that is what TakeCare calls Whole Health.”
Check out the website here.
November was National Family Caregivers Month! We know how much effort caregivers put into helping their survivors and families. It’s a lot of work and it’s hard to find help with all there is to do. In honor of our Caregivers, we have added a new section of links to our Resource page.
Check out those links here.
Go to our Resource Page for more.
Dr. Brenner’s Musings
#8 “Tag, You’re It!”
While we mourn the passing of our beloved Dr. Paul Brenner, we can still enjoy the beautiful and inspiring words he shared with us over the years.
In “Tag, You’re It!” Dr. Brenner delves into the psychology behind the unmet parental needs experienced in childhood and how they effected people, including himself.
On his personal page is a summary of Dr. Brenner’s professional career.
Expressive Arts Therapy with Alessandra Colfi, Ph.D.
Read more here!
There is plenty of evidence that exercise is the most effective lifestyle practice which improves quality of life and outcome in recovering from cancer and lowering risk of recurrence. However, many patients hold back for fear of getting hurt and don’t enjoy exercising… In order to support and encourage patients to exercise safely and join low-impact Zumba classes, Alessandra researched and wrote a new article:
The Hidden Risks of Holding Back During Exercise
“For a short time, I taught a Zumba class on Zoom, recording in a small studio where I had to keep my movements tight and stay within a limited space to remain visible on camera. After just a couple
of weeks, I began experiencing aches all over, especially in my hips and knees. That discomfort ultimately led me to stop teaching the class after a couple of months…” Read on here.
Take a look at Alessandra’s page for projects scheduled for August along with registration information. Have a look here!
Mary’s Reality-Based Nutrition
Each one of us is a unique individual on our own unique path. One size does not fit all when it comes to personal healthcare. Therefore, it is important for us to be our own advocates when it comes to our health. The first step is educating yourself about your disease and the role nutrition plays in treating it. Take a look at my page for resources to help you improve your diet. Mary’s Reality-Based Nutrition
Follow me on my Facebook page for recipes: Check it out here! And you can follow me on Pinterest!
Genomic Oncology
Dr. Mark Adler, Institute Director, heads the Genomic Oncology Diagnostics and Second Opinion Initiative, a new generation platform for developing treatments tailored to the individual patient. It involves the application of sensitive genomic tests to the determination of a tumor’s drug sensitivity and resistance. In addition, a person’s hereditary traits and a tumor’s genetic signature will be used to determine how best to eliminate a given cancer with a specific therapy or agent.
We have added 5 new articles authored by Dr. Adler to this page.
Read more here!
Videos and Talks
Gregg Braden Invitational – CHI The Energy that Heals – This is a recent Zoom conversation regarding CHI Initiative’s upcoming documentary “The Energy that Heals”, and CHI’s “amazing ability to bring together diverse practitioners, thinkers, and actors with the goal of empowering individuals, societies, and humanity to build healthier societies and sustainable stewardship of our planet.”
Dr. Vicarios’s interaction starts at around minute 38. The documentary “The Energy that Heals” is under production. This is the link to CHI’s website with a recent Webinar that explains this exciting documentary project: https://www.chi.is/
