Conscious Choice Seattle: Kinder, Gentler, Better

May 2005 | Natural Health Report

Kinder, Gentler, Better

Natural health practitioners like Dr. Ben Chue give integrative medicine a more positive name

By Bob Condor

Natural health practitioners like Dr. Ben Chue give integrative medicine a more positive name

On a fall morning last year, Kari Mims set out for two doctor’s appointments. Recently diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer at age 28, she was flanked by several loved ones: her partner, her mom, dad, sister, stepdad.

Mims calls the group her “posse.”

The first stop was Dr. Ben Chue’s office at the Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center. Mims already knew her cancer was on the fast track from what she deemed as excellent diagnosis care from the Bastyr Natural Health Clinic.

“My doctor regularly called, even as late as 9 o’clock at night, to check on me,” said Mims. “ I couldn’t believe she would do that for me.”

At Chue’s office, Mims and her family heard confirmation that the breast tumor was “so rapid, so aggressive, so fast” that she would need to undergo chemotherapy and surgery as soon as possible. Yet, funny thing, Sims describes that first meeting with Chue as “uplifting.”

“Dr. Chue spent almost three hours with us,” recalls Sims. “He answered all of our questions. He was very encouraging and told us he thought her (suggested) treatment would make a big difference.”

The posse moved on to an afternoon appointment with a breast surgeon, who happened to be a woman.

“She was very cold, very matter-of-fact,” says Sims. “She said I needed surgery and I needed a mastectomy and that was that.”

The appointment didn’t last long.

Whoosh.

That’s the sound of a number of medical “truths” blowing out the window. One is the research finding that female patients communicate best with female doctors, followed in effectiveness by male patients seeing female docs, male patients with male physicians and, last, female patients with men for doctors.

Another medical truth shattered was the documented fact that today’s doctors, with all the pressure of managed-care bottom lines, see their patients for visits lasting only minutes, and certainly not hours.

Throw in the mistaken perspective that natural-health clinics don’t respect or appreciate Western medicine protocol. Mims’ Bastyr doctor swiftly referred her to Chue, who trained as a medical resident at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and as a fellow at Virginia Mason Hospital. Mims’ story flies in the face of convention and contention about physicians.

Whoosh.

Chue continued the unconventional as he unpacked his treatment option for Mims on that fall morning. His recommendation was for Mims to follow 12 weeks of “fractionated” chemotherapy rather than standard chemotherapy. Fractionated chemo uses lower, more frequent doses of toxic drugs to target tumor cells and spare the normal cells that are routinely killed and poisoned with larger weekly doses of chemotherapy drugs. The larger doses can lead to all sorts of side effects, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hair loss, reduced immunity to illnesses and even heart failure.

Chemo without side effects

“I worked during those first 12 weeks of chemo,” says Mims, who lives in Poulsbo and works at a Montessori preschool. “I never threw up. I was fatigued but feeling OK otherwise.”

Better yet, Mims reports that her tumor shrank from “53 cc’s to less than one centimeter” before surgery. Rather than a mastectomy, Mims underwent a lumpectomy. She is on leave from the preschool job but fully expects to be back at work after treatment is completed.

“The doctors removed about a pound of tissue, including lymph nodes,” said Mims.
“They tested for cancer and found no trace at all. The lymph nodes were clear.”
The fractionated chemotherapy regimen has become accepted mainstream medical practice. Research from such esteemed schools as Harvard Medical School have confirmed the success of fractionated doses. Some studies even showed that larger, more toxic doses were less effective than the fractionated doses. The smaller, more frequent doses target blood vessels that feed the tumor cells. The tumor is killed off without the blood supply and normal healthy cells are not “poisoned.”

But that wasn’t the case when Chue first embraced the approach a decade ago as a doctor in training at Virginia Mason.
“There were things said to me you wouldn’t believe,” says Chue, medical director at Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center, talking in his office late one Friday afternoon. “My colleagues just wouldn’t accept there was another way to do things.”

Chue said his interest was to eradicate cancer but not wipe out the person’s core strength and stamina for months or even years in the process. He also noticed that patients who could stay healthier, or at least maintain some level of life energy, during chemo treatments tended to come out of the treatments with a more positive outlook.

Medicinal instinct

In part, Chue was working on instinct in choosing fractionated doses of chemotherapy for patients. He grew up in San Francisco’s Chinatown, accustomed to herbal tonics as first-line remedies for all sorts of illnesses, including colds, flu and headaches. He always remembered his family’s medicine as he studied at schools like Yale and the University of California-San Francisco medical school.

As a physician in more conventional facilities, Chue found his forward-thinking ideas a little far ahead of the curve. He joined the Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center about seven years ago as medical director and has found a professional home where M.D.s work side by side with naturopaths, acupuncturists and other health practitioners.
“The fractionated-dose chemotherapy is part of treatment of the whole patients,” says Chue. “We offer a wide range of integrative treatments to support our patients.”

In Mims’ case, she’s had weekly acupuncture treatments and vitamin intravenous drip. She has pursued mental imagery and prayer on her own.

She is finishing up a second 12 weeks of chemotherapy after the lumpectomy. Next is a round of radiation that Mims dreads. But she trusts Chue’s judgment.

Sadly, that’s not always the case with patients and their doctors. Another truth busted.

“I read a breast cancer book written by a woman who was a survivor,” says Mims. “She said to expect doctors would treat you like you were the disease and not a person. Dr. Chue couldn’t have been further from that ‘truth.’ He knew his stuff and treated me like a human being. He stretches his mind to make sure the treatment is necessary. He keeps everything positive.”

Bob Condor is editor of Evergreen Monthly.

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