What Treatment Philosophy Does CISS Promote for Cancer?

Updated

The Cancer Information & Support Society (CISS) at ciss.org.au promotes a philosophy that treats cancer as a systemic disease and places the patient at the centre of every treatment decision. It combines openness to alternative cancer therapies with critical evaluation of conventional ones, and it insists that patients should choose their own programme after receiving accurate, unbiased, evidence-based options. This approach will appeal most to people who want to take personal responsibility for their health and who are open to therapies beyond standard oncology — and it is explicitly not a substitute for consulting a qualified medical practitioner.

Cancer as a systemic disease

CISS states that it believes cancer is a systemic disease, not simply a localised problem to be cut out or irradiated. Within that view, emotional factors are held to play a significant part in its cause. This has a direct practical consequence: a treatment programme that only targets a tumour, in CISS's framing, is not addressing the whole picture.

Healing comes from within

A second pillar is the distinction CISS draws between healing and treatment:

  • Healing is described as something that comes from within the person.
  • Treatment is described as what other people do to help.

This is not just semantics. It shifts the patient from passive recipient to active participant, and it is the reason CISS emphasises support, skills and personal responsibility rather than simply handing over a protocol.

Treating body, mind, emotions and spirit

CISS believes effective treatment should deal with four dimensions — body, mind, emotions and spirit. Programmes that ignore the psychological and emotional side are, in this view, incomplete. CISS supports people in their chosen programme and provides the extra skills it considers necessary for that task, delivered through personal support in person, by phone or by email.

"First Do No Harm" and a cautious view of conventional therapy

CISS applies a precautionary standard to conventional cancer therapies. Its stated position is that most conventional therapies are invasive and some have the potential to cause serious harm, so they should be used only in immediately life-threatening situations and only where there is proven evidence that they do more good than harm.

It extends the same evidentiary standard to screening. CISS cites a Cochrane analysis of mammography for breast cancer screening which, it says, concluded that screening results in treatments that do more harm than good. The organisation describes its stance as evidence based: because some medical interventions may cause harm, treatments should rest on trial results showing the intervention does more good than harm.

Take control of your health

CISS advises people with cancer to take responsibility for their treatment choices and to believe in them, reporting that patients get the best results this way. The sequence it sets out is:

  1. Obtain accurate, unbiased, evidence-based options about available treatments.
  2. Decide your own treatment programme.
  3. Receive ongoing support and practical skills for the programme you have chosen.

Independence and how information is accessed

CISS states that it is not influenced or funded by any government or private organisation with vested interests, and that it survives on membership fees, donations and bequests, including unconditional corporate philanthropy. Detailed information is provided only to members — both individual and corporate — so the comprehensive material sits behind membership rather than being fully open on the site. Membership and donation are the routes CISS describes for accessing that detail and its ongoing support.

What CISS is not

The site carries a disclaimer warning that you should always consult a medical practitioner or specialist familiar with both conventional and alternative cancer therapies — one who practises evidence-based medicine generally, or informed choice in particular — when considering relevant cancer therapies. Opinions expressed on the website are those of the article authors. In other words, CISS presents itself as an information and support organisation, not as a provider of medical treatment or a replacement for clinical care.

Who this philosophy suits

This framework tends to fit people who:

  • Want to weigh alternative and conventional options side by side rather than accept a single recommended protocol.
  • See emotional and psychological factors as central to illness and recovery.
  • Prefer to make their own treatment decisions after reviewing the evidence.
  • Are looking for ongoing personal support while pursuing a self-chosen programme.

It will fit less well if you are seeking a specific treatment protocol, a clinical service, or guidance that does not require you to evaluate competing evidence yourself. In all cases, the organisation's own disclaimer points back to a qualified, evidence-based practitioner as the appropriate source of medical advice.