Implementing a Multidisciplinary Lifestyle Medicine Clinic for Cancer Survivorship Cancer Fitness 15 January 2025

Implementing a Multidisciplinary Lifestyle Medicine Clinic for Cancer Survivorship

Two bowls of yogurt with fruit and granola on a table, surrounded by scattered strawberries and mint leaves.

The incidence of new cases of cancer in the United States and globally continues to grow. It is estimated that 40% of cancers are preventable with changes in lifestyles. These include such obvious things as smoking cessation, preventing and treating obesity, and decreasing the amount of alcohol consumption. There are currently over 18 million cancer survivors in the United States, with this number expected to grow by another 8 million by the year 2040. There is an increasing need to address the complex care of this large population of patients.
 
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) is a driving force in promoting six pillars of lifestyle medicine. These pillars include physical activity, predominantly a plant-based diet, restorative sleep, stress management, avoiding risky substance use, and social connections.  Physicians, and other healthcare providers, can go through ACLM programs to become certified in Lifestyle Medicine (LM}.
 
The link below is to a publication from this past November 2024 that describes the implementation of a multidisciplinary lifestyle medicine clinic for cancer survivors at a major academic institution.  This comprehensive approach is an outstanding example of how we should approach long-term survivorship programs in medical centers throughout the United States and globally. Such clinics would be part of an integrative approach to the provision of cancer care not only for long-term survivorship, but also for patients from the time of their initial diagnosis of cancer. I share this information with you so that you can ask your own oncology team if they provide such a multidisciplinary approach at your cancer center?
 
Link to “Implementing a Multidisciplinary Lifestyle Medicine Clinic for Cancer Survivorship”:

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