Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY

Dr. Barrie Cassileth explains CAM research at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

ByABC News
November 19, 2008, 12:19 PM

Jan. 13, 2010 -- I'm Dr. Barrie Cassileth, Chief of the Integrative Medicine Service at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. We provide a lot of clinical services but we also engage in a great deal of research. Right now, we have several research projects open. I'll tell you just about a few of them. One concerns our great interest in teaching patients self-hypnosis and for that we actually have a CD, which is available for sale at less than what it costs to produce it. I think it's something like $9.95. It's pre-surgery, pre-treatment, pre-stress, problems with sleeplessness, wonderful tool -- self-hypnosis that patients can use at anytime to help them get through the difficulties before- and after-cancer treatment. And this is not only good for patients but also for family members. We're studying this, and we believe that we will document its value.

Another study that we're engaged in concerns lymphedema, the swelling of a limb because lymph nodes have been removed in the arm and the leg for breast cancer of gynecologic malignancies. And we believe that acupuncture can reduce lymphedema in many patients. So we are in the process of studying that. We have a variety of other studies. These are all listed online on the Memorial Sloan Kettering website, which is mskcc.org/clinicaltrials or mskcc.org/integrativemedicine.