October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Why integrative oncology is personal for me
Yoon Hang Kim MD
October Newsletter
Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Why integrative oncology is personal for me
Dear friends,
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I want to share something I don't often talk about in a newsletter.
My introduction to integrative oncology was not academic. It began when a family member was diagnosed with breast cancer just as I was starting my medical career. I was young, newly trained, and I watched someone I loved go through surgery, treatment, and recovery with very little guidance on anything beyond the standard protocol. There were so many questions no one seemed able to answer: What about nutrition? What about the fatigue, the nausea, the fear? Was there anything that could help the body tolerate treatment better? That experience sent me down a path I have been walking ever since.
Thirty years later, another family member was diagnosed with breast cancer.
This time was different. Three decades of training and practice in integrative and functional medicine meant I could actually be useful. I could help interpret the pathology report. I could sit with the surgical options and the evidence behind each one. I could help build a supportive plan that worked alongside the oncology team rather than around them. I am deeply grateful that the knowledge I spent a career building could be put to use for someone I love. It is, honestly, the reason I do this work.
That experience also became the basis for one of the articles I am sharing below. I wrote it as a teaching composite, but the questions in it are very real.
What integrative oncology actually means
I want to be clear about this, because the word "integrative" gets misused. Integrative oncology is built on a foundation of good conventional care. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and endocrine therapy save lives, and nothing I write is meant to replace them. The integrative layer sits on top: evidence-informed strategies to protect normal tissue, reduce side effects, support the immune system, and improve quality of life during and after treatment.
The most consequential decision in breast cancer is rarely which supplement to take. It is whether and how to proceed with definitive treatment. Everything else works best when layered on top of that.
A book for patients and families
If you or someone you care about is facing a cancer diagnosis, I wrote this book for you. It walks through what integrative medicine can realistically offer alongside conventional treatment, how to weigh the evidence, and how to have these conversations with your oncology team.
Integrative Oncology: Evidence-Based Strategies to Support Cancer Treatment
Get the book: books2read.com/u/brrq2Y — available in multiple formats through Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and more.
Reading for Breast Cancer Awareness Month
These are free articles from my blog. I have chosen the ones most relevant to breast cancer and to the questions families ask me most often.
- Evaluating Surgical and Integrative Oncology Options in Early-Stage Breast Carcinoma — the article that grew out of my own family's experience
- Integrative Oncology: A Comprehensive Academic Synthesis — the big-picture overview of mechanisms, guidelines, and evidence
- Herbs and Natural Compounds That Protect Normal Tissue During Radiation Therapy — for anyone heading into radiation
- Intravenous Vitamin C with Chemotherapy — evidence, protocols, and practical guidance
- Mistletoe (Viscum album) in Cancer Care — one of the most-studied botanical therapies in oncology
- Immune Support from an Integrative Medicine Perspective — what science, Chinese herbal medicine, and medicinal mushrooms actually offer
- Berkson's ALA/LDN Protocol in Integrative Oncology — a clinical review of the evidence
- Supplements and the CYP3A4 Pathway — why supplement and drug interactions matter during treatment
You can find the full collection here: ifmsynergy.com/tag/integrative-oncology
One request
If you are due for a mammogram, please schedule it. If you have noticed a change and have been putting off the call, please make it this week. Early detection remains the single most powerful tool we have, and it is the reason both of my family members are here today.
Thank you for reading, and for letting me share something personal.
With gratitude,
Yoon Hang Kim MD
Board-certified in Preventive Medicine • Integrative & Functional Medicine
About Dr. Kim
Yoon Hang Kim MD is board-certified in Preventive Medicine and practices integrative and functional medicine. He completed the University of Arizona Osher Fellowship in Integrative Medicine under Dr. Andrew Weil, holds UCLA medical acupuncture certification, and is a recipient of the IFM Scholarship.
His career in integrative oncology includes serving as Medical Director of Integrative Oncology at Miami Cancer Institute and Director of the Integrative Medicine Program at the University of Kansas Medical Center, where he built programs following Society for Integrative Oncology guidelines. He later served as Enterprise Medical Director at WellMed/Optum, developing a non-opioid integrative pain management program for roughly 30,000 patients.
Dr. Kim is the author of eight books, including Integrative Oncology: Evidence-Based Strategies to Support Cancer Treatment, and more than 25 peer-reviewed articles. He founded the LDN Support Group and writes regularly at ifmsynergy.com.
Today he leads Yoon Hang Kim MD, a membership-based, insurance-free telemedicine practice serving clients in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Georgia, Florida, and Texas, and practices part time at Hill Country Integrative Medicine in Fredericksburg, Texas, where he offers integrative oncology consultation, IV nutrition, functional medicine testing, and oncology acupuncture.
This newsletter is for educational purposes and is not medical advice. Nothing here is a substitute for care from your own oncology team. Please discuss any supplement, botanical, or integrative therapy with your treating physicians before starting it.
