Dr. Lena Suhaila, ND, FABNO
Integrative Oncology
Evidence-based naturopathic oncology care alongside your conventional cancer treatment.
If you are reading this, you may have recently received a diagnosis that changed the direction of your life. You may be working through treatment and trying to find your footing. Or you may be one of the many people beginning to ask the deeper questions about prevention, recurrence, recovery, and the conditions inside the body that shape long-term health.
The questions here are not only how to treat the cancer. They are how to care for the body that is living through it, and the person inside that body.
I'm Dr. Lena Suhaila, ND, FABNO. Board-certified by the American Board of Naturopathic Oncology, with eighteen years in clinical practice. I was the first FABNO-credentialed naturopathic oncologist in California. After my naturopathic oncology residency, I served on the medical staff at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, now part of City of Hope, where I rounded with the hospital teams and sat on tumor boards alongside conventional medical, surgical, and radiation oncologists. My additional training includes the Metabolic Terrain Institute of Health and the Institute for Functional Medicine.
The practice is fully virtual. All consultations are conducted through secure, encrypted video.
What integrative oncology actually means
Integrative oncology is the evidence-based use of complementary therapies alongside conventional cancer treatment. The work runs in coordination with chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, surgery, and targeted therapy, never in place of them.
The framework I practice within rests on a specific premise. You are a whole person, living in a whole body, inside a whole life. Cancer is not the totality of who you are. It is a process that has emerged within the conditions of your body and your life, and those conditions can be understood. They can also be changed.
Think of your body's terrain as the soil. Cancer is what may, unfortunately, grow when the soil conditions support it. You are the gardener. Everything you put into, onto, and around yourself shapes that soil. Your nutrition, your sleep, your stress, your relationships, your environment, the medications you take, the inflammation that has been quietly running in the background for years. All of it shapes the terrain that either supports or interrupts cancer biology.
A protocol focused only on the tumor leaves the soil largely unchanged, and a protocol focused only on the soil ignores the immediate clinical problem in front of us. The integrative approach holds both. The conventional treatment from your medical oncology team stays in place and does the work it is designed to do. What changes is the condition of the body that treatment is acting on, so the treatment lands better and so you come out the other side more whole than you would have otherwise.
We do not treat the tumor. We treat you.
Cancer is more than a tumor
A tumor is the visible expression of a biological environment that allowed certain cells to grow unchecked. Working only against the tumor without addressing the environment leaves a meaningful part of cancer biology untouched.
The metabolic terrain includes several interconnected systems, each one shaping cancer biology in measurable ways and each one accessible to clinical intervention.
Insulin signaling and metabolic health.
Elevated fasting insulin and insulin resistance are associated with multiple cancers, particularly hormone-sensitive cancers, colorectal cancer, and pancreatic cancer. Insulin and IGF-1, two closely related metabolic and growth-signaling hormones with cross-reactive receptors, both function as growth factors with documented roles in tumor biology. Many cancer cells preferentially metabolize glucose at high rates through aerobic glycolysis, the phenomenon known as the Warburg effect. Optimizing fasting glucose, fasting insulin, HbA1c, and HOMA-IR is foundational metabolic oncology work.
Chronic inflammation.
Elevated inflammatory cytokines including IL-6, TNF-alpha, and CRP create a microenvironment that supports tumor growth, angiogenesis, and metastasis. Inflammation also worsens cancer-related fatigue, treatment side effects, and recovery.
Mitochondrial function.
Mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the central features of cancer biology. The shift in cancer cells away from oxidative phosphorylation toward aerobic glycolysis sits at the core of contemporary metabolic oncology research. Supporting mitochondrial resilience in healthy tissue is part of the terrain work.
Microbiome health.
The gut microbiome shapes immune surveillance, systemic inflammation, estrogen recirculation through the estrobolome, chemotherapy efficacy, and immunotherapy response. Microbiome disruption from antibiotics, processed foods, and treatment itself is among the more modifiable terrain factors.
Immune surveillance.
Your immune system is continuously identifying and eliminating abnormal cells, and cancer represents in part a failure or evasion of that surveillance. Immune function is shaped by sleep, stress, nutrient status, microbiome composition, and nervous system regulation.
Hormonal balance.
Estrogen metabolism, androgen signaling, thyroid function, cortisol, and melatonin all influence cancer biology. In hormone-sensitive cancers, how estrogens metabolize through the 2, 4, and 16 hydroxylation pathways shapes risk and recurrence patterns.
Nervous system regulation.
Chronic sympathetic activation and HPA axis dysregulation drive downstream effects on immune function, inflammation, sleep, and recovery. Polyvagal-informed therapy and trauma-aware clinical work address this directly.
Toxic burden.
Environmental exposures including pesticides, heavy metals, endocrine-disrupting compounds, microplastics, and mycotoxins shape cancer biology through multiple mechanisms. The clinical work supports specific Phase I and Phase II liver detoxification pathways, methylation, and elimination through nutrient-targeted protocols.
Circadian disruption.
Sleep timing, light exposure, and meal timing influence melatonin production, immune function, and cellular repair. Circadian disruption is an independent risk factor for several cancers.
Tumor microenvironment.
The local environment around a tumor, including stromal cells, immune cells, blood vessels, and the extracellular matrix, profoundly shapes how cancer behaves. Many of the terrain factors above act systemically on this microenvironment.
None of this work replaces tumor-directed treatment, and that's not its purpose. The terrain work addresses the conditions in which cancer arose and the conditions that influence whether it returns.
How integrative oncology works alongside conventional cancer treatment
Integrative oncology done well is coordinated with your conventional treatment, not parallel to it. Each phase of conventional care has its own clinical considerations, and the integrative protocol is built around those specifics.
During chemotherapy.
Some nutrients, botanicals, and supplements interfere with chemotherapy. Others enhance efficacy or protect healthy tissue. The clinical judgment to know which is which is what board-certified naturopathic oncology training exists for. The protocol is built around you, with the chemotherapy agents, targeted therapies, and other medications on your treatment plan factored in as part of the clinical picture. Where the evidence supports specific interventions, the protocol incorporates them to support treatment tolerance, side effect management, and the protection of healthy tissue.
During radiation.
Antioxidant timing is more nuanced than a blanket pause. Some direct antioxidants need to be held around radiation sessions to avoid blunting the oxidative mechanism of action, while certain indirect antioxidant support and tissue-protective interventions remain appropriate to support skin integrity, reduce fatigue, and protect surrounding healthy tissue. The protocol is built around you, with the radiation schedule and field factored in.
During immunotherapy.
Immunotherapy works by activating an immune response against cancer. Some supplements can blunt that response, while specific microbiome interventions can support it. The microbiome literature in immunotherapy has expanded substantially over the last decade, with growing evidence on how gut microbiome composition influences checkpoint inhibitor response.
Around surgery.
Pre-surgical preparation includes nutrient optimization, anti-inflammatory support, and protocols designed for recovery. Post-surgical care addresses wound healing, lymphatic support, and the return to baseline function.
With targeted therapy.
Targeted therapies are designed to hit one specific thing in the cancer. That's what they do well. But you are a whole person, not a single target. The drug is doing its job on the cancer, and meanwhile your body is still trying to do everything else it normally does: digest food, sleep, fight infection, repair tissue, recover from treatment, manage stress, keep your energy steady. That whole person is what I'm taking care of. The drug treats the cancer. I'm helping take care of you.
Side effect management.
Cancer-related fatigue, chemotherapy-induced nausea, peripheral neuropathy, mucositis, hand-foot syndrome, treatment-related anxiety, sleep disturbance, and cognitive effects all have evidence-based integrative approaches grounded in primary research and naturopathic oncology literature.
The goal is one coherent treatment plan, not two competing ones. When questions come up with your oncology team, I am available to communicate directly so the plan stays coordinated. Booking and practice information is on the Work With Me page
What I evaluate
The functional medicine lab work I order is chosen based on the specifics of your case, and the picture deepens over time. The labs vary by case, but a thorough metabolic terrain evaluation typically covers the following categories.
Metabolic health and insulin signaling
Fasting glucose with an optimal range of 70 to 85 mg/dL, fasting insulin with an optimal range of 2 to 3 mcIU/mL, HbA1c with an optimal of 5.0% or below, HOMA-IR with an optimal under 1.0, triglyceride-to-HDL ratio, ApoB, and lipoprotein particle number. These optimal ranges sit well below the conventional reference ranges on standard lab reports, which reflect population averages rather than metabolic optimization.
Inflammation and immune function
High-sensitivity CRP, ferritin, fibrinogen, homocysteine, and where indicated, IL-6 and TNF-alpha. Complete blood count with differential to assess neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and other immune patterns.
Hormonal and endocrine health
Comprehensive thyroid panel including TSH, free T3, free T4, reverse T3, and thyroid antibodies. Sex hormones and metabolites where clinically relevant, including urinary or DUTCH testing for estrogen metabolism patterns in hormone-sensitive cancers. Cortisol patterns and HPA axis function.
Nutrient status
I target vitamin D levels of 70 to 80 ng/mL for cancer patients, a range considerably higher than standard reference ranges and at the upper end of clinically used targets in integrative oncology. Iron studies, B12 with methylmalonic acid, folate, magnesium RBC, zinc, copper, and selenium.
Gut and microbiome health
Comprehensive stool analysis for microbiome composition, digestive function, intestinal permeability markers, and inflammatory markers including calprotectin.
Genetic and nutrigenomic factors
Nutrigenomic testing through Nutrition Genome (https://nutritiongenome.com/shop-nutrition-genome/ref/983/) for individual polymorphisms affecting methylation, detoxification, antioxidant capacity, and nutrient metabolism.
Where indicated by case
Mycotoxin testing, heavy metal assessment, organic acids testing, circulating tumor DNA monitoring, advanced cardiovascular markers, and additional functional medicine panels selected based on tumor biology and clinical presentation.
Comprehensive lab work isn't about finding something wrong. It's about understanding the specific terrain we're working with, so the protocol that gets built is yours and not generic.
The cancers I have particular depth in
The terrain framework applies across cancer types, but each cancer has its own biological drivers that shape how the integrative work is built. The following are areas where I have particular clinical depth.
Breast cancer
Breast cancer terrain work centers on estrogen metabolism, insulin signaling, and inflammatory drivers. The integrative protocol addresses how estrogens are metabolized through the 2, 4, and 16 hydroxylation pathways, the role of the estrobolome in estrogen recirculation, insulin and IGF-1 as growth signals, and the specific terrain conditions associated with hormone-positive, hormone-negative, HER2-positive, and triple-negative disease. The work integrates with surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, endocrine therapy, and targeted treatment.
Ovarian cancer
Ovarian cancer terrain work focuses on inflammatory drivers, mitochondrial function, the oxidative stress associated with platinum-based chemotherapy, and the microbiome considerations relevant to gynecologic cancers. The protocol supports treatment tolerance through chemotherapy and addresses the long-term terrain considerations relevant to recurrence-prone disease.
Endometrial and uterine cancer
Endometrial cancer is one of the most metabolically driven cancers, with insulin resistance, body composition, and unopposed estrogen exposure as central drivers. The terrain work addresses metabolic flexibility, estrogen metabolism, and the specific inflammatory and hormonal patterns associated with endometrial disease. This work is particularly relevant for patients newly diagnosed, those completing treatment, and those concerned about recurrence.
Colorectal cancer
Colorectal cancer terrain work focuses on the gut microbiome, intestinal inflammation, insulin signaling, bile acid metabolism, and the role of specific dietary patterns in colorectal carcinogenesis. The integrative protocol addresses treatment tolerance during chemotherapy, the support of healthy tissue through radiation, and the specific terrain considerations for both colon and rectal disease.
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer terrain work addresses androgen metabolism, insulin signaling, inflammation, and the metabolic drivers that influence the trajectory from indolent to aggressive disease. The protocol is built around the specifics of active surveillance, post-prostatectomy care, hormone-deprivation therapy support, or treatment for advanced disease.
Pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer is one of the most metabolically driven cancers, with insulin signaling, IGF-1 activity, glucose metabolism, and chronic inflammation as central drivers. The terrain work addresses metabolic flexibility, mitochondrial function, the inflammatory and microbiome patterns associated with pancreatic disease, and the nutritional and physiologic considerations that come with an aggressive cancer and demanding treatment protocols. The protocol supports treatment tolerance through chemotherapy, the maintenance of lean tissue and nutritional status, and the long-term terrain work that continues across the course of the disease.
I also work with people who have lymphoma, head and neck cancers, gastric cancer, bladder cancer, melanoma, and hormone-sensitive cancers more broadly. The terrain framework adapts to the specific biology of each case.
Who I work with
The work fits well with patients who arrive already engaged with their own care. They've read their pathology report. They've researched their diagnosis. They've talked to their oncologist and gotten clear answers about some things and unclear answers about others. They want to understand what's happening in their body and they want a clinical partner who can think alongside them.
The work meets people across the cancer continuum.
Newly diagnosed
Patients preparing for treatment, often in the first weeks after diagnosis, who want to enter chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery in the strongest possible physiological state. Decisions made in the first ninety days about nutrition, metabolic terrain, and physiologic preparation shape much of what follows.
In active treatment
Patients working through chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, surgery, or targeted therapy. Care focuses on treatment tolerance, dose maintenance, side effect mitigation, and supporting the body's capacity to do hard work without breaking down in the process.
Survivorship
Patients completing treatment and moving into long-term care, where the question shifts from acute treatment to terrain optimization, recurrence prevention, and addressing the metabolic, inflammatory, and physiologic patterns that influence what comes next. Conventional oncology usually ends abruptly here, in surveillance scans and an open question about what comes after. The work I do in this phase is called Vigilant Remission: the active cultivation of the terrain so that what follows treatment is not just the absence of cancer but the presence of metabolic, immunological, and nervous-system health that makes recurrence biologically less likely.
Metastatic and chronic cancer
Patients living with metastatic disease or chronic cancer, where care is structured around quality of life, treatment tolerance, and addressing the physiology that allows cancer to progress. The goal is to make the body a less hospitable environment for the disease while keeping the person whole.
High-risk prevention
Patients with strong personal or family history of cancer, or those living with high-risk inherited mutations including BRCA1, BRCA2, Lynch syndrome, TP53, and others, where the work focuses on terrain optimization and early-detection strategy in coordination with your genetic counselor and oncology team.
Integrative oncology and alternative cancer claims are not the same
Integrative oncology is the use of complementary therapies alongside conventional cancer treatment, with the evidence base and clinical judgment to know what interacts with what. Board-certified naturopathic oncologists train for years in pharmacology, oncology, drug interactions, and the specifics of how complementary therapies behave in the context of cancer treatment.
Alternative cancer claims operate from a different premise. The space online is full of practitioners and product sellers promising that some single substance, some single protocol, some single device cures cancer outside of conventional medicine. These claims are usually anti-oncology in posture, dismissive of pathology, dismissive of staging, and built on testimonials rather than clinical evidence.
When you work with a board-certified naturopathic oncologist, you're working with someone whose training assumes your conventional team is doing their job and whose role is to support that work and address what conventional treatment doesn't address. The FABNO credential exists specifically to mark this difference: it requires a residency, board examination, ongoing continuing education, and clinical experience documented over years. Fewer than two hundred practitioners worldwide hold it.
My clinical approach
Before our first visit, you upload everything you have to the patient portal: pathology, imaging, treatment plan, recent labs, medical history, current medications and supplements, intake forms. I read all of it before we meet.
The first visit is sixty to seventy-five minutes, focused entirely on you. I want to understand what is happening in your body now, and what has been happening for the years before this. What you have been carrying. What had no exit. What your body has been compensating for. What your insulin has been doing. What your gut has been doing. What your nervous system has been holding. Where you have felt safe, and how often. We also review the medical picture together, your pathology, your conventional treatment, the questions you have brought from your oncology appointments. The clinical work begins from the whole picture of you, not from any single piece of it. More on the science behind why these questions belong in cancer care is in this article (https://www.naturallywellwithin.com/post/integrative-oncology-and-the-cancer-biology-standard-care-doesn-t-have-time-for).
The second visit is scheduled one to two weeks after the first. By then I have had time to think carefully about everything we covered and to write your comprehensive treatment plan. At this visit you receive that plan and we go through it together. The plan includes supplements with dosing and timing relative to your treatment, nutritional structure, therapeutic modalities, and sequencing of interventions, all built from the picture we developed at the first visit. You leave with something to act from. The protocol gets refined further as more of the clinical picture comes into focus.
From there we work together over time. Treatment plans shift. Side effects emerge. The clinical picture deepens. Conventional therapy changes. The integrative protocol is adjusted alongside it. Follow-up visits are scheduled at the cadence your situation calls for. This is ongoing oncology care coordinated with your conventional team.
Where the clinical situation calls for it, I bring in additional layers of care. My trauma-informed clinical work is grounded in Compassionate Inquiry, the method developed by Dr. Gabor Maté. I completed the first online cohort with Dr. Maté and Sat Dharam Kaur directly, and went on to serve as a facilitator in the program. Compassionate Inquiry addresses the connection between unprocessed life experience and physical health. In oncology, chronic stress physiology, nervous system dysregulation, and unresolved trauma shape inflammation, immune signaling, hormone regulation, and recovery in measurable ways.
Internal Family Systems, in which I am Level 3 trained, is a parts-based therapeutic model that helps people work with the internal patterns that have shaped how they hold stress, suppress need, override exhaustion, and relate to their body. Polyvagal-informed work addresses the nervous system patterns that influence inflammation, immune function, and recovery. Where appropriate and clinically indicated, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is part of the work I do, particularly for the existential weight that cancer often surfaces.
None of this work replaces conventional cancer treatment; it supports the person living inside it.
The evidence base I work from
A growing body of literature in oncology, immunometabolism, and microbiome research supports the role of metabolic and physiologic factors in cancer progression, treatment tolerance, and recurrence risk.
The metabolic theory of cancer, building from Otto Warburg's original observations and developed through contemporary researchers including Thomas Seyfried, frames cancer as a disease of altered cellular metabolism. The shift away from oxidative phosphorylation toward aerobic glycolysis, the dependence of many cancer cells on glucose and glutamine, and mitochondrial dysfunction in tumor biology sit at the core of the metabolic terrain framework.
The Hallmarks of Cancer framework, developed by Hanahan and Weinberg and updated across multiple editions, organizes the biological capabilities cancer cells acquire: sustaining proliferative signaling, evading growth suppressors, resisting cell death, enabling replicative immortality, inducing angiogenesis, activating invasion and metastasis, reprogramming energy metabolism, evading immune destruction, tumor-promoting inflammation, and genome instability. Each one corresponds to terrain factors that can be addressed clinically.
The microbiome literature in oncology has expanded substantially over the last decade, particularly the research on gut microbiome composition and immunotherapy response, the role of specific bacterial populations in chemotherapy metabolism, the estrobolome in hormone-sensitive cancers, and the gut-immune axis in cancer surveillance.
The insulin-IGF-1 axis literature establishes the role of metabolic hormones in cancer initiation, progression, and recurrence, with particularly strong evidence in breast, colorectal, prostate, and endometrial cancers.
The functional medicine and naturopathic oncology literature provides the evidence base for specific interventions: nutritional protocols, targeted supplementation, mind-body interventions, detoxification support, and the integration of these approaches with conventional treatment.
The Compassionate Inquiry and Polyvagal Theory frameworks address the body-mind connection through trauma-informed clinical work, with a growing research literature on the role of nervous system regulation in immune function, inflammation, and recovery.
What you receive in your protocol is this evidence base applied to the specific terrain of your case.
Frequently asked questions
What is integrative oncology?
Integrative oncology is the evidence-based use of complementary therapies alongside conventional cancer treatment. It addresses the underlying terrain of the body: the inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, microbiome disruption, nervous system dysregulation, and nutritional gaps that shape how cancer behaves and how the body responds to treatment. It runs in coordination with chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, surgery, and targeted therapy, not in place of them.
Is integrative oncology evidence-based?
Yes. The field draws from a substantial peer-reviewed literature spanning metabolic oncology, microbiome research, functional medicine, naturopathic oncology, and primary research on nutrition, supplementation, mind-body interventions, and treatment support. Board-certified naturopathic oncologists train extensively in evaluating and applying this evidence in the context of conventional cancer care. Before clinical practice, I worked in pharmaceutical research at Amgen, doing pre-clinical pharmacokinetics on cancer-related drugs and molecular biology research on prostate cancer drug development. That experience gave me a working understanding of how conventional cancer drugs are designed, tested, and metabolized in the body. It is part of why I can move with agility between the conventional and integrative worlds, and why my recommendations are built with both in mind.
Can integrative oncology be used during chemotherapy?
Yes. The clinical question is how to do it safely and what to use. Some supplements, botanicals, and nutritional strategies can interfere with chemotherapy, while others support treatment tolerance, reduce side effects, and protect healthy tissue. The judgment to know the difference is what board-certified naturopathic oncology training exists for.
Do supplements interfere with chemotherapy?
Some supplements interfere with specific chemotherapy agents. Others support treatment tolerance, reduce side effects, or are clinically neutral. The interactions depend on the specific chemotherapy agent, the specific supplement, the dose, and the timing. A board-certified naturopathic oncologist evaluates each interaction in the context of your treatment plan. Self-prescribing supplements during chemotherapy without that evaluation is one of the more common ways patients inadvertently undermine their treatment.
What is metabolic oncology?
Metabolic oncology focuses on cancer as a disease of altered cellular metabolism. It addresses insulin signaling, glucose metabolism, mitochondrial function, and the metabolic pathways cancer cells preferentially use. The metabolic approach asks why cancer arose and what conditions in the body are allowing it to grow, and treats those conditions alongside the tumor itself. Read more on the Metabolic Approach to Cancer page.
Do you work with conventional oncologists?
Yes. My recommendations are designed to integrate with your conventional treatment plan, and I am available to communicate with your oncology team when questions come up. Conventional oncologist response to integrative care varies. Some welcome a coordinated approach, particularly when the integrative work is done by a board-certified clinician with oncology training. Others remain skeptical. Part of what I do is communicate clearly enough with your oncology team that the plan moves forward in a coordinated way, whatever their starting position.
Do you provide virtual consultations?
The practice is fully virtual. All consultations are conducted through secure, encrypted video, which allows me to work with patients across the country and internationally.
What is FABNO?
FABNO stands for Fellow of the American Board of Naturopathic Oncology, the board certification for naturopathic doctors specializing in oncology. The credential requires a naturopathic medical degree, a naturopathic oncology residency, board examination, ongoing continuing education, and clinical experience documented over years. Fewer than two hundred practitioners worldwide hold the credential.
How do I get started?
Patients begin with a first visit of sixty to seventy-five minutes. Before that visit, you upload your pathology, imaging, treatment plan, recent labs, and intake forms to the patient portal. At the second visit, scheduled one to two weeks later, you receive your comprehensive treatment plan and we go through it together. Booking information is on the Work With Me page.
Related reading
The Metabolic Approach to Cancer
Integrative Oncology: What Conventional Cancer Care Doesn't Address
How Naturopathic Integrative Oncology Works With Chemotherapy
About Dr. Lena Suhaila, ND, FABNO
Schedule your first visit on the Work With Me page