Frequently Asked Questions

How Can I Find More Information about Complementary and Alternative Medical Practices?

The NCI has produced summaries of the scientific literature (PDQ summaries) and shorter question and answer documents (Fact Sheets) about certain CAM therapies.

You may also wish to contact the NCCAM Clearinghouse (http://nccam.nih.gov/nccam/fcp/clearinghouse/index.html) to obtain the fact sheet, "Considering Complementary and Alternative Therapies." The NCCAM web site (http://nccam.nih.gov/nccam/fcp/faq/considercam.html) provides helpful hints and questions to consider when choosing an alternative healthcare practitioner.

Can I Receive an Alternative Treatment at the OCCAM?

The OCCAM is not a treatment facility and cannot answer specific medical questions. The OCCAM cannot make referrals to individual practitioners or recommend particular therapies for patients.

Will My Experience Help in the Evaluation of Complementary and Alternative Medical Therapies?

Many people write to the OCCAM with their own testimony about a successful treatment or a particular healer or healthcare practitioner. To have this information reviewed, people may ask their practitioners whether he/she is collecting information on the success of their treatments. A practitioner can collect and organize the information and present it to the OCCAM once there is sufficient data to make a case for the effectiveness of a particular treatment. Please visit the Best Case Series page.

Will the OCCAM Evaluate My Own Invention or Treatment?

NCI has a Best Case Series program that is designed to review documentation of the results of unconventional cancer therapies. The OCCAM does not perform research, however, it and other components of the NCI provide programs to support outside researchers

Can Complementary and Alternative Medicine Be Investigated Using the Same Methods Used in Conventional Medicine?

Complementary and alternative medicine needs to be investigated using the same scientific methods used in conventional medicine. The NCI encourages the acquisition of valid information about complementary and alternative medicine, applying at least as rigorous research methods as the current standard in conventional medicine. This is because the research often involves novel concepts and claims, and uses complex systems of practice that need systematic, explicit, and comprehensive knowledge and skills to investigate.

What is the difference between OCCAM and NCCAM?

The Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM) is one of many offices and divisions within the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The NCI is one of over twenty Institutes and Centers (IC's) comprising the NIH. The OCCAM was established in October 1998 to coordinate and enhance the activities of the NCI in the field of CAM. The OCCAM is administratively under the Office of the Deputy Director of Extramural Science at the NCI and its responsibilities are to coordinate the NCI's CAM research and information initiatives and to serve as the NCI's liaison to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM).

The NCCAM is one of over twenty Institutes and Centers (IC's) comprising the NIH. The NIH is one of eight health agencies within the Public Health Service of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). In 1998, the Congress established the NCCAM to replace the Office of Alternative Medicine. While the NCI's OCCAM is focused exclusively on CAM as it relates to the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of cancer, the NCCAM's mission is to stimulate, develop, and support research on CAM across several diseases and conditions for the benefit of the public. The NCCAM's overriding mission is to give the American public reliable information about the safety and effectiveness of CAM practices.

Where can I find information about a specific disease or type of cancer?

The NIH Health Information Index provides a list of diseases currently under investigation by NIH or NIH-supported scientists and major NIH research areas with links to the appropriate institute(s), center(s), or other component(s) to call for information, along with the appropriate phone numbers.

CancerNet provides comprehensive information about cancer. The Cancer Information Service (CIS) provides the latest, most accurate cancer information. In the U.S., you can call the CIS between 9:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. local time, Monday through Friday at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).

CancerTrials is NCI's comprehensive clinical trials site, providing access to NCI's clinical trials database, news about cancer research, and resources for patients and health professionals about participating in clinical trials.

Where can I go for information about cancer clinical trials?

The NCI, has developed the Physician's Data Query (PDQ) http://cancer.gov/cam and the CancerTrials website (http://cancertrials.nci.nih.gov/) to provide patients, family members and other members of the public current information about cancer clinical research studies.

Does the OCCAM provide advice for specific medical conditions?

The OCCAM website does not offer personalized medical advice to individuals about their condition or treatment. The resources on this site should not be used as a substitute for professional medical care. We urge you to work with your medical care providers for answers to your personal health questions.

If you have a medical question, please visit the Health Information section of the NCI web site. You should also visit MEDLINEplus at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus. A large percentage of the questions asked about NIH on-line resources can be answered by browsing the NIH index pages or by using the NIH Search Engine at http://search.nih.gov/.

If you have questions that relate to specific foods, or prescription, or over-the-counter drugs, you should visit the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) web site http://www.fda.gov/.

As a CAM practitioner, how do I present my findings to the NCI?

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has a process for the evaluation of data presented by health care practitioners about groups of patients with cancer treated with alternative medical approaches. This process, called the Best Case Series Program, provides an independent review of the medical records and primary source materials [medical imaging (i.e., radiographic, or ultrasound films) and pathology (i.e., cytology and surgical pathology)] and an overall assessment of the evidence for a therapeutic effect.

What is POMES?

POMES stands for Practice Outcomes Monitoring and Evaluation System, which is a concept developed at the NIH's Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) in 1997. Sometimes the P is used to stand for "Prospective", but the concept remains the same. The OAM wanted to develop a system that would review data of cancer patients treated in a complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practice. A panel would review the data and make decisions about whether or not further research should be pursued for a specific CAM intervention.

In August 1997, the OAM and NCI jointly convened a large working group to discuss this process. Both CAM and conventional practitioners and researchers were invited to discuss the process and critique it. No official report was generated from this meeting but one outcome was the establishment of the Cancer Advisory Panel for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAPCAM). This is a chartered NIH panel that reviews data about the outcomes of cancer patients treated with CAM therapies. The panel advises the Director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine about whether and how further research should be pursued for a specific therapy. Series of case reports submitted through the NCI's Best Case Series Program are the primary data reviewed by the CAPCAM.

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