Cancer impacts your body and your overall health in sometimes surprising ways. But it also affects your emotional health and your plans for the future. Managing side effects like nausea, fatigue and stress, as well as weakness, numbness or pain, can help you achieve physical, emotional and spiritual wellness before, during and after treatment.
That’s why our comprehensive, integrative approach includes evidence-informed supportive care services that help you manage the physical and emotional side effects of cancer—to help you stay strong, support your immune system, combat side effects and maintain your quality of life.
Evidence-informed supportive care
Our many-faceted supportive care program, which serves as the model for hundreds of similar programs across the country, is designed to help:
- Ease the side effects of cancer and its treatment
- Keep your body nourished
- Promote your independence
- Avoid delays or interruptions in your treatment regimen
Our comprehensive program, personalized to you
The supportive care program at City of Hope has many options available to improve your health and well-being and may be part of your integrated care plan. Learn more below about the comprehensive program supporting the whole you at City of Hope.
Behavioral health
Behavioral health is an important part of integrative cancer care at City of Hope. It focuses on the ways in which emotional, mental, social and behavioral factors may directly affect your physical health.
Our licensed mental health and clinical social work professionals offer therapeutic support to help you and your caregiver respond to a cancer diagnosis and treatment regimen in empowering and stress-reducing ways.
Nutritional support
Treatment for cancer can cause side effects such as weight loss, fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, low blood counts and increased risk of infection. These side effects can inhibit your ability to stay nourished and interfere with your treatment.
A registered dietitian may recommend a personalized diet to help your body stay nourished, prevent malnutrition, rebuild body tissue and support immune function.
Oncology rehabilitation services
Oncology rehabilitation includes a wide range of therapies designed to help you build strength and endurance, regain independence, reduce stress and maintain the energy to participate in daily activities that are important to you. City of Hope offers a range of oncology rehabilitation therapies, including:
- Physical therapy
- Occupational therapy
- Speech and language therapy
- Manual therapy (which may include massage and chiropractic therapies)
- Lymphedema prevention and treatment
- Support programs related to healthy living, weight management and sexual intimacy
Pain management
Some patients experience pain from cancer itself or as a side effect of cancer treatment. The pain management physicians at City of Hope can help you anticipate and proactively manage cancer-related pain by troubleshooting the side effects of pain medication, such as nausea, drowsiness and constipation.
Spiritual support
Our spiritual care team consists of chaplains who reach across cultures, beliefs and religious backgrounds to provide personalized spiritual support services for you and your loved ones. They offer support for visitation, counsel, prayer, patient rights issues and grief and bereavement counseling.
We’re happy to arrange for a minister or clergy member of your faith to visit you during your treatment. Your caregivers and family members may also talk with the spiritual care services team at any time.
Naturopathic support
Upon your doctor's recommendation, a naturopathic support provider may suggest strategies to support your metabolism and digestion during cancer treatment and help relieve side effects. Patients may explore options including herbal and botanical preparations and dietary supplements designed to reduce side effects such as nausea, fatigue or trouble sleeping.
Learn more about becoming a City of Hope patient
As a world-renowned research institution and the founding member of the National Comprehensive Care Network, City of Hope is at the forefront of the next generation of treatments, serving as a leader in the delivery of personalized, whole-person care.
We’re available now to listen and answer your questions.
Care at City of Hope is centered on you, the patient. Your cancer care team will help you understand the wide range of innovative treatment options available to you, so you and your loved ones can make informed decisions about the road ahead. We also ensure that you have access to supportive care services designed to help manage your emotional and physical health during and after treatment.
We’re here to help you make informed decisions about which treatments are right for you.
Learn more about cancer care and your options at City of Hope
Cancer, the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells, develops when the body’s normal control mechanism stops functioning correctly.
Learn more about cancer, its categories and its stagesCity of Hope’s breast cancer care team uses state-of-the-art diagnostic technology to accurately locate and stage your cancer, which allows us to develop a personalized treatment plan for every patient.
Learn about mammography, imaging, genetic tests and moreSurgery and radiation are sometimes called "local therapy," because they treat the cancer directly, at the site where it is found. Other treatments, such as chemotherapy or hormone therapy, are called "systemic therapy," since they are not usually delivered to the cancer site, but to the whole body.
Learn about breast cancer treatment optionsOur breast surgeons have expertise in performing surgical procedures for all types of breast cancer, and our team works closely with reconstructive plastic surgeons to offer the most innovative breast reconstruction techniques for patients during as well as after cancer surgery.
Learn about the innovative surgical options for breast conservation, removal and reconstructionRadiation therapy is used after surgery to kill any remaining cancer cells and help prevent the cancer from coming back. It may also be used to provide relief from pain and other symptoms of cancer that has spread to other parts of the body.
Learn about the innovative radiation therapies that destroy cancer cells, such as 3-D conformal radiation therapyTreatments such as chemotherapy or hormone therapy, are called "systemic therapy," since they are not usually delivered to the cancer site, but to the whole body.
Learn more about systemic therapies, including immunotherapy and chemotherapyAt City of Hope, we’re committed to bringing our patients new advances in cancer treatments. One way we do that is by offering clinical trials that may lead to new treatments and offer patients options that may not otherwise be available to them.
Learn more about the role of clinical trials in cancer treatment