Navigating Supplements in Cancer Care: A Guide for Patients and Caregivers
By Dr. Stacy Dunn, ND, LAc, FABNO, FABORM
Forward by Jasmin Murphy,B.H.A., ACE-CPT
Navigating cancer care and survivorship comes with countless questions—especially when it comes to supplements. Many patients, survivors, and their families wonder how supplements might impact treatment, whether they can help minimize side effects, or if they could interfere with chemotherapy or radiation. In the following interview with Toni Talley of Fox 4 KC, Dr. Stacy Dunn, ND, LAc, FABNO, FABORM, sheds light on these important concerns, offering practical advice on integrating supportive therapies with conventional treatments.
Q: Can you explain the role of supplements in integrative oncology and how they can complement conventional cancer treatments?
A: The right supplements can be incredibly helpful during cancer treatment. Many patients
experience side effects from chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation, surgery. While these can be life-saving treatments, our healthy cells often get caught in the cross-fire, leading to significant side-effects—from taste changes and digestive changes, mouth sores, nausea, neuropathy, and fatigue. Supplements can help to prevent and minimize these side-effects. This not only helps people feel better during treatment, but also helps to maintain their regular treatment schedule without interruption. Sometimes side-effects can be so significant that treatment cycles may be delayed, dose-reduced, or halted altogether. The right supplements can help patients stay on track to receive their treatments.
Q: Are there any risks or concerns with taking supplements if someone is undergoing chemotherapy or radiation therapy?
A: There are potential interactions. An important component of integrative cancer care is screening for those interactions. It is very important for people to work with an integrative provider who is trained in drug-nutrient-herb interactions. It is tempting to take a supplement that has been recommended by a friend or family member or even someone at the health food store, but you don’t want to take something that could interfere with your treatment. You don’t want to undergo cancer treatment and all that it entails, and not have it be as effective as it can possibly be.
Q: What factors should people look into and what should be considered when looking into supplements?
A: There are many factors involved in our supplement recommendations. We want to know the type of cancer a patient has, any conventional treatments they are receiving, as well as their own unique personal and clinical histories. All of these factors are important for supplement selection.
We want to know the type of cancer a patient has because cancer isn’t just one disease, and we will look to target different pathways in different types of cancer. There are also supplements that may be beneficial for one type of cancer, yet contraindicated for other types, or even sub-types. It is more complex than people realize.
It is also important to consider any conventional treatment a patient is receiving and medications they are taking. Because, again, drug-herb-nutrient interactions can be significant. If a patient is beginning chemotherapy, we want to know the specifics. There are many different types of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, and each comes with its own set of side effects. So to best support patients to limit these side-effects, we need to know their specific treatment regimen.
It is important to know the patient, the whole person, as a patient is so much more than their diagnosis. We look at the whole person, and their unique histories and lifestyles and make recommendations based on all of these factors. Our lab testing is also crucial to helping individualize and tailor supplement recommendations to the patient. Because as Dr. Riordan taught, the most important supplement to take, is the one you are deficient in. And we don’t know what you are deficient in, unless we test.
Q: Do supplements play a role in cancer survivorship?
A: Absolutely. Lab testing is critical here as well, so we can tailor recommendations to each individual patient. We look for nutritional deficiencies, immune function, blood sugar regulation, hormone balance, inflammation. The labs help us identify areas that need work. Addressing those areas not only helps patients feel better, but supports a cancer-free environment. A great analogy is a fish tank. If you have a fish that dies because it is living in a dirty fish tank, the tank has not been cleaned or cared for and is overgrown with algae and bacteria, you are not going to replace the fish with another fish and expect a different outcome. You have to clean the tank. You have to continue to monitor and maintain the health of the water. The same is true with cancer. You can remove a tumor, but the underlying imbalances that may have led to its growth are still there.
Q: What should patients and caregivers of course know about selecting these high quality supplements?
A: This is such an important topic because the supplement industry is not regulated. You want to make sure that your supplements have 3rd party testing for quality assurance—to show that what they say is in their product, is actually in the product at the dose listed, without additional unlisted ingredients. You want to make sure they are testing for contaminants such as heavy metals, PCBs, mold. It might seem like a bargain to get supplements at a discount chain, but it is actually a waste of money if the product doesn’t contain what it claims to contain. It is also best to avoid Amazon for supplements, as counterfeited supplement brands are on the rise. The product may look almost identical to products you take, but the seller may be fraudulent and reprinting/labeling capsules of who-knows-what—white rice flour was found in one analysis (NOW Foods, 2021). A number of supplement companies have reported finding counterfeits of their products, including Fungi Perfecti, NOW Foods, and Pure Encapsulations (Fungi Perfecti, 2022; U.S. Department of Justice, 2023).
It is best to purchase your supplements from your integrative provider or a health food store. At Riordan Clinic, we ensure the brands we carry are of the highest quality, with extensive testing and 3rd party verification.
Q: Any additional thoughts?
A: You can’t out-supplement a bad diet! Supplements can be very supportive during and after cancer treatment, but eating well, sleeping well, and moving our bodies are the foundations for health.
Fungi Perfecti counterfeit case:
Fungi Perfecti. (2022). Counterfeit Host Defense® products on Amazon. Retrieved from https://fungiperfecti.com/pages/counterfeit-products-on-amazon
Pure Encapsulations counterfeit case:
U.S. Department of Justice. (2023, August 18). California man charged in $130,000 scheme to defraud consumers by selling counterfeit supplements on Amazon. Retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/california-man-charged-130000-scheme-defraud-consumers-selling-counterfeit-supplements
NOW Foods counterfeit case:
NOW Foods. (2021, March 19). Warning about counterfeit NOW® products on Amazon. Retrieved from https://www.nowfoods.com/now/nowledge/warning-about-counterfeit-now-products-amazon