Can tart cherries alleviate cancer pain? Does prayer help heal African-American women with breast cancer? To answer such questions, Johns Hopkins Medicine has been awarded a five-year $7.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish a research center to study complementary and alternative medicine in the treatment of cancer.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Cancer--funded by the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine--will initially pursue four studies of alternative therapies for breast and prostate cancers, will train and educate physicians and medical students in alternative medicine and research techniques and will review and fund pilot studies of other alternative treatments.

"Our aim is to reconcile scientific method with alternative medicine treatments--two areas currently in opposition in the West," says Adrian S. Dobs, principal investigator of the new CAM center and associate professor of endocrinology. The center will promote collaboration between alternative medicine and mainstream scientific communities to determine the most promising alternative treatments and the most scientific way of studying them.

Among the research projects is an evaluation of PC-SPES, a combination of eight Chinese herbs, for its ability to reduce stress leading to oxidative DNA damage in cancer cells and for its ability to improve the immune system in prostate cancer patients. Scientists also will study soy and sour cherries for their ability to reduce cancer pain and will investigate the health impact of prayer among African-American women with breast cancer. The center also plans collaborations with Johns Hopkins Singapore.

Steven Piantadosi, a professor of oncology and director of biostatistics for the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, is co-principal investigator for the CAM center.

The center will focus first on breast and prostate cancers, but Dobs believes that information gleaned from studying these cancers may be generalized to other forms of cancer.

"Often patients ask their physicians about an alternative medicine treatment that they heard of, but receive little direction one way or the other because there is little scientific evidence," adds Dobs, who also directs Hopkins' Clinical Trials Unit and serves as vice chair for the Department of Medicine. "Then the onus is on the patient to decide, and this can be dangerous for patients." Despite the lack of scientific proof and safety data on alternative medicine treatments, Americans spent more than $27 billion on alternative therapies in 1997, exceeding out-of-pocket spending for all hospitalizations in the United States, according to a survey published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"We have assembled a top-notch team of Hopkins scientists and leaders in alternative medicine, and we will proceed with an open mind and a healthy amount of skepticism."

The initial trials should begin in about six months. Those wishing to find out more about the studies or volunteer should call 410-847-3550.

Hopkins was one of two awardees for the grants. The other is the University of Pennsylvania.

Related Web site:

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at NIH: http://nccam.nih.gov