Complementary and Alternative medicine in Cancer 

Introduction 

  Complementary medicine or CAM is a range of therapeutic and diagnostic disciplines that are used together with conventional medicine. Today, there are over 150 different schools of complementary medicine. They specifically saw a surge over the past few decades. CAM comprises a collection of diagnosis and treatment methods that are different from the stereotype mentalities in medical schools. They have often roots in the cultures of the people of a certain area that date back to thousands of years ago and have been taken to the present time generations by generations. The Alternative Medicine means replacing the common medicine with traditional ones. Iranians nowadays are increasingly becoming more interested in CAM. This is mainly due to cultural issues as well as the inefficiencies in modern medicine or the public concern about the side effects of classic treatment methods. Nevertheless, it is necessary to adequately manage this school of medicine and remove the myths that surround this popular expertise. Also, it is necessary to conduct expert studies over this field and at the same time mix the available capacities in treatment methods with the appropriate approaches of the day. To the same effect, the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Group was established in April 2014 upon an order by the dean of the Research Center. The Group is dedicated to studying and exploiting the complementary methods in treatment of cancer in order to find the ways to improve the treatment methods and remove the problems in the area of complementary medicine.

  Mission:

• Identifying and bringing together the individuals, methods and complementary and alternative medical centers in the area of cancer as well as the validation and extraction of data
• Promoting initial data whose validity has been tested in medical training texts and reviewing the possibility of improving drugs and approaches under study
• Providing expert training to students through theses as well as online education

  Goals:

• Publication of results of evaluation of methods and texts through scientific journals for public information as well as advance results in academic-research journals and creating complementary and alternative medicine databases on cancer
• Generation of knowledge and indigenization of drugs as well as approved approaches and also improving the structure of new products based on prior data and designing self-care methods and increasing the quality of life of the patients.
• Strengthening the Research Group to promote its scientific and expert capabilities

  Plans:

• Studying the current [[[[MOFRADAT]]]] in complementary medicine and their chemical structure
• Studying and applying electromagnetic in treatment of cancer
• Promoting the technical knowledge of academic board members and experts over complementary and alternative medicine for treatment of breast cancer
• Organizing the Comprehensive Cancer Control Scientific Seminar in Iran

 Members:

	Dr. Ali-Reza Majid Ansari (Director) PhD in Pharmacy and PhD candidate in Biotechnology from Pasteur Institute of Iran (IPI) Research Interests: Bioelectromagnetics in treatment of cancer, Herbal medicine for cancer treatment​​
	Hassan San’ati (Expert) M.Sc. in Lab Studies and M.A. in Parasitology from ShahidBahonar University of Kerman​ Research Interests: Herbal medicine for cancer treatment, Iranian traditional medicine, Chinese traditional medicine, Greek traditional medicine
	Dr. Ali Salari-Taba (Assistant) PhD in Pharmacy from Faculty of Pharmacy of Tehran University of Medical Sciences Research Interests: Herbal medicine for cancer treatment

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