The Johns Hopkins Center for Cancer Complementary Medicine (CAM) will provide internationally recognized state-of-the-art scientific expertise and a powerful interdisciplinary infrastructure. It is our mandate to integrate the science of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) through interface with practitioners of CAM therapies and through researchers across the broad arenas represented in the three major health Schools of The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. Our research program focuses on gender specific cancers, initially breast and prostate cancers. Both the prevalence of these diseases in the UNITED States as well as the prevalence of CAM use by these patients demonstrates that allopathic care is not sufficient either for prevention or treatment of these diseases and that promising CAM modalities must be studied. We are focusing on four aspects of cancer research eminently applicable to CAM, 1) immune surveillance, 2) will be applicable to the general cancer process. Our Center encourages basic studies that are generalizable to the study of cancer mechanism. Our initial studies will aim to establish a series of outcome measures within a system of laboratory cores which will be used in future projects to test for the safety and efficacy of interventions. The elucidation of the mechanism of action can provide a point of departure for future rigorous scientific studies. The initial projects include studies of: 1) the mechanistic assessment of the effects of neuroendocrine stress and Chinese herbs on oxidative genome damage, 2) the development of a model to study the attenuation of cancer pain in a rat model through the use of herbal remedies, 3) Chinese herbal interventions in men with prostate cancer, and 4) a prayer-based intervention in Black women with breast cancer examining the potentially salutary impact of an intervention to ameliorate emotional stress associated with diagnosis and treatment and attendant neuroendocrine and immune responses. The cores include Statistics and Methodology, Laboratory, and Administrative. We have generated a strong institutionally supported formal CAM career training through our Graduate Training Program in Clinical Investigation and mentorship in established laboratories, and a well-defined process for encouraging and enabling developmental projects in CAM. Our mission is strengthened by international links with our Johns Hopkins Singapore campus and access serve as teachers and mentors. The overall goals of the center is to apply state-of-the-art research methodology to highly promising CAM modalities for cancer and to invigorate the intellectual atmosphere with CAM research. This will lead to a new age of integrative, comprehensive care.
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