In today’s world, the standard of care is generally defined as: surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.
CONVENTIONAL
Most conventional cancer therapies, which are prescribed and directed by mainstream doctors, are comprised of what is known as the “standard of care.” In today’s world, the standard of care is generally defined as: surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. These are the primary modalities used in conventional cancer therapy, however, there are others, including hormonal and, more recently, novel immunotherapies. We are at the dawn of the immunotherapeutic age and this is not a perfected therapy, but there appears to be new hope and progress in this treatment realm. In fact, there is “no perfect therapy” for all cancers and cancer patients. But, there are many therapeutic paths that can provide great benefit, and that includes therapies that “are not” strictly standard of care therapies.
INTEGRATIVE
Integrative cancer therapy combines therapies from both the widely recognized, mainstream standard of care world, which is conventional medicine, and non-standard of care medicine, which is frequently called alternative or complementary medicine which “complements” the conventional therapies. Therefore, we have conventional and alternative therapies combined, working simultaneously, thus they are working integratively. The goal of integrative medicine is for the doctors and/or respective medical teams to bring the best of both worlds together.
ALTERNATIVE
Alternative cancer therapy is comprised of individual treatments or multi-faceted therapeutic regimens which do not include conventional cancer therapy. Hundreds of types of treatments are known as alternative cancer therapy. As an example, more well-known, supportive alternative therapies may include: various focused-nutritional strategies, different kinds of exercise regimens, a variety of mind-body protocols, and prescribed supplementation – which may include certain types of vitamins, botanicals and/or other extracts. Again, there are many other types of alternative treatments and therapies. Some are supported by strong evidence of efficacy and safety, others are of questionable value.
There are millions of people who have beaten cancer and transformed their health by implementing one (or a combination) of the three approaches, above, in their encounter with early-stage cancer, late-stage cancer, and cancer patients who have been given terminal cancer prognoses (see – Hope Never Dies – for 20 compelling stories).
Have a Wonderful Healthy Day and Keep the Hope!
Rick Shapiro, Author 
Hope Never Dies on Amazon