United States Congress
Committee on Government Reform
Hearing on Integrative Oncology: Cancer Care for the New Millennium
June 7, 2000

Testimony of:

Jeremy R. Geffen, MD, FACP
Geffen Cancer Center and Research Institute
Vero Beach, FL

Good afternoon.

I am honored to be here today to speak with you about a subject that I care deeply about, and to which I have devoted my entire professional career.

I am a practicing medical oncologist and have spent the last ten years exploring effective and responsible ways of integrating the very best mainstream, state-of-the-art cancer treatments with a wide variety of alternative and complementary therapies. In 1994, I opened the Geffen Cancer Center and Research Institute, in Vero Beach, Florida, with the vision of providing leadership in this field by creating a model of what truly integrative cancer care would look like, how it would feel, how it would run, what it would offer, and how it would differ from mainstream centers in the way it cares for people with cancer and their loved ones.

My compelling motivation to create such a cancer center appeared in my life fourteen years ago, while I was a senior in medical school. In that year my father was diagnosed with metastatic gastric cancer, and died less than four months later. In a heartbeat, my own life -- as well as that of my father and everyone in our family -- was turned upside down and changed forever.

A somewhat unusual aspect of our situation was that, prior to medical school, I had had years of experience exploring and studying a variety of alternative and complementary approaches to healing. Like so many other cancer patients and family members, I longed for a place to bring my father where he could receive the very best of both worlds -- that is, state of the art conventional medicine, along with alternative and complementary therapies. I firmly believed that this kind of integrative care could help save his life, or at the very least, help improve the quality of his life in the time that remained.

Although I searched everywhere, I could find no such place ... because it didn't exist ... and I vowed that one day I would build the cancer center that I had been looking for. A summary of our approach at the Center, including examples from real patients who have gone through our program, is described in my book, The Journey Through Cancer: An Oncologist's Seven-Level Program for Healing and Transforming the Whole Person, recently published by Crown.

In the remainder of my time today, I would like to emphasize two lessons which I have learned in building an integrative oncology program, and guiding patients and loved ones on their journey through cancer.

The first lesson is very simple, yet profound, and it is this: Cancer almost always challenges the mind, heart, and spirit of patients and their family members as deeply -- if not more deeply -- than it challenges the physical body.

Unfortunately -- even tragically -- this simple lesson is often overlooked by mainstream medicine-and most especially by Medicare, and HMO's, as well as the major government and university research institutions. In the urgent, compelling search for newer and better ways to diagnose and treat cancer -- with scientifically based methods, and now with alternative and complementary therapies as well -- the person who has the disease, and those who love them, are often left behind.

From my years of experience as an oncologist, and as a friend or loved one of cancer patients, I can tell you with absolute certainty that focusing only on the physical dimensions of this -- or any other -- disease will never be enough.

Thus, as we begin to embrace a more integrative approach to cancer care, it is time that medicine learns to honor and care for every dimension of who we all are as human beings -- physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually -- with equal skill and integrity. Nothing less will ever provide the healing and fulfillment that all people seek in life-especially when facing an ordeal as challenging as the journey through cancer.

How we can achieve this is the other lesson I would like to briefly address this afternoon. First and foremost, we need to clearly acknowledge that this is an area that is worthy of our time and attention, in equal measure to the resources we give to the biological aspects of disease. We need vastly more significant funding, and reimbursement, for modalities of healing that honor and address the needs of the whole person.

In my opinion, there is something deeply flawed about a healthcare system in which I, as an oncologist, can readily spend tens of thousands of dollars of Medicare funds to extend the life of an elderly man with advanced lung cancer for perhaps three or four months, utilizing expensive chemotherapy treatments, growth factors, blood transfusions, CT Scans, MRI Scans, and other costly diagnostic procedures ... but I cannot find $100 dollars, or even $50 dollars, for an acupuncture treatment, a therapeutic massage, or a private counseling session for a frightened, terrified single mother of three children who is battling metastatic breast cancer-and who happens to be sitting in the very next room. I have faced this circumstance countless times in my career, and I think it is wrong. It is also heartbreaking, frustrating, and, I believe very shortsighted on our part as a nation.

Make no mistake: the advances and developments in bio-molecular medicine that we enjoy in this country are nothing short of stunning, and profound -- and we must continue to pursue them with great vigor, focus, and intention. In the same way, we must continue and even further expand our explorations of the value and benefits of alternative and complementary therapies. However, at the same time, we must finally begin to address a deep and fundamental issue: in America doctors are paid to treat diseases-not to genuinely care, in a comprehensive way, for the people who have the disease. Honestly facing this, is, I believe, one of the most fundamental challenges that lies before us today, especially as we begin to explore how we might truly create a "Cancer Care for the New Millennium." In this process we must not forget that the system of cancer care that we choose to create will be called upon to meet the needs of real people, everywhere-not only people just like you and me, but perhaps literally you and me, and people who we know and love-who might need that care today, tomorrow, and beyond.

In closing, I would like to thank Chairman Burton for his courage in sponsoring these hearings, for his leadership in helping to create an integrative form of cancer care, and for the opportunity and privilege to appear before you today.

Thank you.