integrative breast cancer care

Providing safe and effective options for combining breast cancer treatment with natural therapies

How We Can Help

Chances are if you’re here, you’ve been impacted by breast cancer and are looking for additional support. For anyone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer, or whose loved one has been diagnosed, information comes fast and the questions can be overwhelming. What is my chance of survival? What will be used to treat my cancer? How effective will treatment be? Can I be cured? How will I feel during treatment? Do I have to have chemotherapy? Will surgery cure my cancer? Can I still work? What about my family? How can I reduce the risk of this cancer coming back again? How do I care for myself once treatment is over?

If you’re looking to ways to take control of your health and feel well in your daily life, whether you’ve been newly diagnosed, are facing a recurrence, are living with breast cancer, or are in the stages o you’re in the right place. Our team is here to provide you with a personalized, realistic support plan that’s safe with your conventional treatments.

breast cancer & Precancerous Conditions We Commonly Support:

• Ductal Carcinoma In-Situ (DCIS)

• Lobular Carcinoma In-Situ (LCIS)

• Invasive Lobular + Ductal Carcinomas, including:

  • Triple Negative Breast Cancer

  • ER+ and/or PR+ Breast Cancer

  • Her2+ Breast Cancer

  • Her2- Breast Cancer

• Inflammatory Breast Cancer

• Metastatic Breast Cancer

• Medullary Carcinoma

• Tubular Carcinoma

• Paget’s Disease

• Non-cancerous breast changes: breast cysts, fibrocystic breast changes, fibroadenomas, central intraductal papilloma, etc

What is Integrative Breast Cancer Care?

Integrative breast cancer care helps to support anyone who has received a precancerous or breast cancer diagnosis, has a strong family history of reproductive cancers, or is a cancer survivor. Whether you are looking for support while you undergo surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or hormone therapy, or you need more aggressive natural therapies to target your cancer directly, we will ensure you have a full understanding of treatment options available to you, so you can make choices you feel comfortable with.

What To Expect

We’re focused on providing safe and effective care so you can make decisions for your health that you feel confident about. That’s why we created the Conquering Breast Cancer Program.

PHASE 1: Your Diagnosis

• Target your breast cancer. We dig into the details of your diagnosis to  develop a customized protocol that directly targets your cancer cells, because not all breast cancers act the same.

• Lower inflammation. Not only is cancer inflammatory but your immune system’s response to cancer cells creates more inflammation that eventually starts to damage your body.

• Prepare your body. By establishing a baseline using our symptoms questionnaire we are then able to set you up with the foundations of health you need most (diet, lifestyle, etc).

PHASE 2: Cancer Treatment Period

If You’re Undergoing Treatment

• Support your specific treatment regimen. This may include surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or hormone therapy, and is designed to ensure two things:

  • That treatment is as effective as it can be

  • That we help reduce the risk or severity of common side-effects, so you can feel as well as possible through treatment (monitored through testing and our side-effect questionnaire)

  • That we proactively protect your against long-term health concerns related to your cancer treatment

• Build up your immune system. Your immune system has been in overdrive since your diagnosis, trying to attack and kill cancer cells, which is why we not only help your immune system by lowering inflammation but rebalance your immune function during treatment to prevent complications. 

If You’ve Completed Treatment

• Treatment review. We review your treatment in detail, discussing how you felt, any complications that came up, and how you’re feeling right now (review test results and utilize our side-effect questionnaire)

• Urgent support. We set you up with a focused treatment protocol to address any urgent concerns, and move right into phase 3

PHASE 3: Recovery + Post-Cancer Prevention

This is where we get to talk not only about surviving but thriving again! We look at preventing a breast cancer recurrence, while also focusing on your healing. Together we’ll ensure you are set up with care that brings the focus back to supporting life and any other health goals you may have for yourself, knowing that we’re always keeping your cancer history in mind so you don’t have to. 

• Target lingering side-effects. Start by treating any side-effects that you are still struggling with from treatment or symptoms of the cancer itself

• Restore immune system function. One of the big concerns in anyone affected by cancer, especially if they’ve been through treatment, is a weakened immune system. So this is the time when we actively rebuild it, to help strengthen immunity so you have a lower risk of infection going forward. 

• Rebuild your gut. Majority of your immune system is actually located IN your gut, so helping to rebalance your microbiome is a key part of maintaining a strong and healthy immune system. Here we not only care for your microbiome but heal any damage in your gut to reduce digestive problems you may be experiencing. 

• Identify any barriers to healing. Now that you’ve gone through the foundational areas of health and healing in the midst of cancer, you may find that stubborn problems or side-effects have not gone away. Focused testing is what will help to determine the reason for this and allow us to address any lingering imbalances, to help you get back to living well. We can then focus your treatment protocol on preventing a recurrence of your cancer.

phase 4: focusing on future goals safely

This is a great time to shift our focus from purely cancer support to the bigger picture. No matter what your future health goals may be, we’ll work together to safely support you. There are two common areas women often look for care around:

1. Reducing menopause symptoms. For many women, breast cancer treatments will either move them into a menopause-like state earlier than expected, start their transition through menopause more abruptly, or bring back symptoms of menopause they have not had to cope with in years. While symptoms may feel like things you just have to live with, there are so many ways to safely reduce these symptoms so you can go back to feeling like yourself. For more information check out Dr. Clarence’s post on Managing Menopause After Breast Cancer.

2. Supporting your fertility goals. With more women being diagnosed with breast cancer during their reproductive years, the first conversation around fertility happens at the time of diagnosis, but navigating your family planning goals once you are in remission can be complicated and overwhelming. Together we’ll navigate your unique case, history, and goals to ensure that you are cared for comprehensively by practitioners who understand your unique risk factors so you can feel confident in your choices. For more information on this check out our Oncofertility page.

How it Works

• 2 hour initial appointment

• 4 week follow-up appointment

• 6 week follow-up appointment

• Custom schedule, adjusted to fit your life and treatments

• Biannual Thrive visits to ensure you remain supported once you’re in remission

At The Clara Clinic we promise to provide you with balanced, realistic, individualized support that will actually work with your conventional treatments. We recognize that every patient and situation is going to be different, so we spend extra time with you, collaborate with your oncologists, and stay up-to-date on current research to ensure your treatment is as current and customized your situation as possible.

If you’ve been affected by breast cancer and want to learn more about integrative breast cancer care, we offer complimentary 15 minute consults with our Naturopathic Doctors focusing on integrative oncology, Dr. Hayhlee Clarence, ND or Dr. Monica Velletri, ND.