Integrative Oncology - a Personal Business for Me and for My Practice.

A Personal Journey

By Yoon Hang Kim, MD, MPH, FAAMA

Cancer changed the trajectory of my life long before I ever became a doctor.

When a close family member was diagnosed with breast cancer, I wasn’t thinking about “integrative oncology.” That term didn’t even exist yet. I was thinking about one thing: how do we help her survive?

That desperation led me to Dr. Bernie Siegel.

My First Teacher: Dr. Bernie Siegel

Dr. Siegel, a Yale University surgeon and author of Love, Medicine, and Miracles, was already challenging the way medicine thought about cancer patients. He encouraged patients to become what he called “exceptional cancer patients” — people who advocated fiercely for themselves and who chose to live from a place of unconditional love, even in the face of a terrifying diagnosis.

When my family member was diagnosed, I reached out to Dr. Siegel directly. We followed his advice. I attended his workshops. I met his extraordinary patients — people who had defied the odds, not by rejecting medicine, but by refusing to be passive recipients of it.

I am deeply grateful to report that my family member is now a two-time breast cancer survivor and very much alive. That experience planted something in me that has never gone away: the conviction that how we approach cancer matters just as much as what we do to treat it.

To this day, I believe Dr. Siegel’s books should be required reading for anyone facing a cancer diagnosis.

Training with Dr. Andrew Weil

It was actually Dr. Siegel who recommended I train with Dr. Andrew Weil at the University of Arizona — and that recommendation proved to be transformative.

During my two-year residential fellowship at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine (graduating in 2004), I immersed myself in a philosophy of medicine that resonated deeply with everything I had already experienced through my family’s cancer journey. Integrative medicine taught me to see the whole person, not just the disease. It gave me a formal framework for what I already knew intuitively: that healing involves mind, body, spirit, and community.

I furthered my integrative oncology training through seminars and conferences, including those sponsored by MD Anderson Cancer Center — one of the world’s leading cancer institutions. Each learning experience reinforced my belief that the best cancer care doesn’t force patients to choose between conventional treatment and supportive therapies. It brings them together.

Building Integrative Oncology Programs Across the Country

Since graduating from Dr. Weil’s program, integrative oncology has been a defining thread in every position I’ve held.

As the founding Medical Director of Integrative Medicine at Miami Cancer Institute — aligned with Memorial Sloan Kettering — I had the privilege of developing a comprehensive integrative oncology program built on the Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) guidelines endorsed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). This meant creating a program where acupuncture, mind-body medicine, and nutritional support weren’t afterthoughts — they were woven into the fabric of cancer care from day one.

At the University of Kansas Medical Center, as Director of Integrative Medicine Services, I continued expanding these approaches, incorporating them into both clinical care and medical education. I also served as Chief Wellness Officer at Memorial Hospital, where I brought integrative principles to a community healthcare setting.

Now, at Hill Country Integrative Medicine in Fredericksburg, Texas, and through my telemedicine practice at Direct Integrative Care, I continue this work — but with greater freedom to practice the way I believe medicine should be practiced.

What Integrative Oncology Actually Means

Here’s where I need to be honest, because there’s a common misconception I encounter regularly.

Most people hear “integrative oncology” and immediately think it means using alternative healing modalities instead of — or simply alongside — conventional cancer treatment. That’s an incomplete picture at best.

My focus is first and foremost on patient outcomes. How do we get the best results for this patient, sitting in front of me right now?

This approach neither automatically rules out conventional oncology nor automatically includes alternative modalities. Every decision is guided by one question: will this improve the outcome for this patient?

Sometimes the answer means supporting a patient through chemotherapy with acupuncture to manage nausea, fatigue, and neuropathy — modeled after the protocol Dr. Weidong Lu developed at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Sometimes it means exploring metabolic approaches to weaken cancer’s fuel supply. Sometimes it means having an honest conversation about what conventional treatment can and cannot offer, and what the patient truly wants for their quality of life.

Mindfulness guides this process. Not mindfulness as a buzzword, but as a clinical discipline — ensuring that everything we do stays focused on the patient’s outcome, not on ideology.

The Frameworks That Guide My Practice

Over two decades of caring for cancer patients, several bodies of work have profoundly shaped my clinical philosophy:

Radical Remission by Dr. Kelly Turner examines the common factors among cancer patients who experienced remarkable recoveries — often against all medical expectations. Her research identified key principles that these survivors shared, and these principles inform how I counsel my patients. Healing is not passive. It requires active engagement with your own recovery.

How to Starve Cancer by Jane McLelland offers a compelling patient-driven framework for understanding cancer metabolism. Faced with multiple terminal diagnoses, McLelland developed a science-informed approach to blocking the fuel sources cancer cells depend on — glucose, glutamine, and fat — using diet, supplements, and repurposed medications. Her “Metro Map” of cancer metabolism has influenced how I think about strategic, multi-targeted approaches to cancer care.

Dr. Bernie Siegel’s body of work — from Love, Medicine, and Miracles to The Art of Healing — continues to remind me that the biology of the individual is responsible for healing, even when the biology of disease is responsible for pathology. His concept of Exceptional Cancer Patients (ECaPs) remains central to how I encourage my patients to engage with their own care.

These aren’t just books on my shelf. They are living frameworks that I apply in clinical practice every day.

What This Looks Like at Direct Integrative Care

At my practice, integrative oncology means a comprehensive, individualized approach that draws from both conventional and integrative evidence. Here’s what that can include:

Acupuncture Oncology — modeled after the Dana-Farber protocol, using electroacupuncture for symptom management including pain, nausea, fatigue, neuropathy, and immune support. I’ve consistently observed that cancer patients who receive regular acupuncture with electrical stimulation seem to do better overall.

Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) — an area of particular expertise for me, with two decades of clinical observation. LDN works by modulating the immune system and increasing endorphin production, and I’ve seen promising results in cancer patients when combined with other integrative therapies.

Metabolic Support — informed by the work of McLelland, the Care Oncology Clinic protocol, and emerging research on therapeutic ketosis, I help patients explore evidence-informed metabolic strategies that aim to weaken cancer without weakening the patient.

Mind-Body Medicine — because Dr. Siegel was right. Unconditional love heals. Patient empowerment is a key factor in healing. The conscious and unconscious powers of the mind should be mobilized in the fight against disease.

Nutritional and Supplement Optimization — including curcumin, medicinal mushroom formulations, modified citrus pectin, high-quality fish oil, and other evidence-informed supplements tailored to each patient’s specific situation.

Honest Medicine — perhaps the most important thing I offer. We don’t give false hope. We don’t take on patients we can’t help. But for those we do work with, we bring everything we have — conventional wisdom, integrative science, clinical experience, and genuine care — to the table.

Cancer Care Should Be Comprehensive

After more than twenty years of walking this path, here’s what I believe: cancer treatment should be comprehensive. It should combine the strengths of Western medicine, mind-body healing, integrative therapies, and supportive care. No single approach has all the answers. The institutions that are getting it right — Memorial Sloan Kettering, MD Anderson, Dana-Farber — have recognized this by integrating complementary approaches into their cancer programs.

But I also believe we need to go further. The current model of integrative oncology, while a tremendous step forward, remains conservative. Promising therapies like LDN, metabolic approaches, and repurposed medications deserve more attention and investigation. When large-scale clinical trials are unlikely to happen, we rely on clinical pioneers and careful observation — and on the courage to offer patients options that the mainstream hasn’t yet embraced.

I’ve seen patients outlive terminal diagnoses by ten years or more. I’ve watched people transform their relationship with their own bodies and their own healing. And it started, for me, with a family member’s cancer diagnosis and a surgeon from Yale who taught me that love is medicine.

If you or someone you love is navigating a cancer diagnosis and looking for a physician who brings both clinical rigor and genuine compassion to integrative oncology, I invite you to learn more about my practice at directintegrativecare.com.

Yoon Hang Kim, MD, MPH, FAAMA is a board-certified preventive medicine physician and fellowship-trained integrative medicine specialist. He offers integrative oncology services through Direct Integrative Care (telemedicine) and Hill Country Integrative Medicine in Fredericksburg, Texas. He is the author of Tao of Healing and Low Dose Naltrexone: Two Decades of Clinical Observation and Review of Current Research.