Cancer cells carry several times more insulin receptors than healthy cells. Dr. Lena Suhaila ND FABNO on food as primary therapy in cancer care.

How a naturopathic integrative oncologist works alongside chemotherapy: the metabolic, microbiome, and nervous system biology that shapes treatment.

You've read your pathology report. You showed up to your oncology appointments with questions, and the answers you got were about the tumor. What you didn't get answers about is everything else. Why this body. Why noe learned the staging, the markers, the protocol. What you didn't get answers about is everything else. Why this body. Why now. What your insulin has been doing. What your microbiome looks like. What your nervous system has been carrying. The science says these qu

The visit that ends before your real questions get asked. The medication added to manage the side effect of the last one. The sense the system isn't trying to make you well so much as managing how unwell you are. You haven't been imagining it. There are structural reasons.

A naturopathic integrative oncologist on the gaps that matter By Dr. Lena Suhaila, ND, FABNO There’s a phrase that circulates freely in oncology clinics, in tumor boards, in the brisk hallways of cancer centers: the patient tolerated the treatment well. It’s written in charts. It’s spoken in case reviews. It’s offered to families as reassurance. What it means, stripped of its clinical neutrality, is this: the treatment did what we needed it to do, and the body survived. Toler

Your oncologist chose the drug. But has anyone looked at whether your biology is positioned to respond to it? The answer is measurable, testable, and in many cases profoundly improvable.

Most people think of gut bacteria in terms of digestion and bloating. That framing is about two decades out of date. Your gut microbiome shapes how your immune system responds to cancer treatment, and the research behind that is no longer preliminary.

You didn’t cause your cancer. And cancer doesn’t happen in a vacuum. This is how I work with the whole picture, in an integrative oncology practice that takes the time to actually see you.

A phase III randomized trial presented at ASCO 2025 found a 13-month survival difference based on infusion timing alone. Here is what that means for patients receiving checkpoint inhibitors right now.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Getting to the root cause has become a wellness slogan. In real clinical practice, it’s something else entirely: a careful reading of how a body arrived at disease, what it’s been carrying, and what it’s been trying to say. This is what root-cause medicine actually looks like when it’s done with real presence and real time, and why the work asks more of both practitioner and patient than a protocol ever could.

Vitamin D and Turkey Tail mushroom are two of the most evidence-supported tools in integrative colorectal oncology. Most patients never hear about either from their oncology team. Here's what the research actually says, written for patients who are ready for the real conversation.

Low-dose naltrexone has been turning up in integrative oncology conversations for years now, and the research is starting to catch up with the interest. Here’s what we actually know about how it works, what the evidence shows, and what the current science does and doesn’t support.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

For centuries, Mistletoe has been associated with ancient healing traditions, folklore, and even holiday romance. But did you know that mistletoe therapy has been gaining recognition as a complementary treatment for cancer? This fascinating botanical extract, derived from the mistletoe plant (Viscum album), has been widely used in integrative oncology, particularly in Europe, as a supportive therapy alongside conventional cancer treatments. But how does mistletoe therapy work

There is a gene inside every one of your cells working around the clock to prevent cancer. It is called TP53, and mutations in it are found in roughly half of all human cancers. Understanding what disrupts it, and what supports it, gives you a window into your biology that most people never get to look through. Here is what the research actually says.

European mistletoe therapy has been used in integrative oncology for a century, and it’s one of the most widely prescribed adjunct cancer therapies in German-speaking Europe. But what does the evidence actually show, where are the legitimate questions, and how does a trained clinician use it in practice? Here’s an honest look at the research and the clinical reality.