This grant awarded to Northwest Natural Health Specialty Care Clinic marks the first time a global pharma­ceut­i­cal com­pany has contracted with an independent naturopathic clinic to in­ves­ti­gate a natural medicine com­bi­na­tion--with a state-of-the-art cancer drug--for relief of cancer treat­ment side effects.

Seattle (Press Release) - Northwest Natural Health Specialty Care Clinic (NNH) announced today it has been awarded a $560,000 research grant by Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company to conduct a multiple clin­i­cal site in­ves­ti­ga­tion into the use of natural medicine to mitigate a side effect of bor­tez­o­mib (Velcade®), an FDA approved, new generation targeted chemo­ther­apy approved for the treat­ment of multiple myeloma and other cancers.

NNH created the research protocol for this FDA approved, double blinded, placebo-controlled trial and will direct its implementation at 5 clin­i­cal research institutions: Swedish Cancer Institute (part of Swedish Med­i­cal Center) in Seattle WA, Island Hospital in Anacortes WA, Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital (Northstar Lodge) in Yakima WA, Cancer Care Northwest in Spokane WA, and Northwest Medical Specialties in Puyallup WA.

The trial will run for 2 years and focus on mitigating a poten­tial side effect of Velcade®, pe­riph­er­al neu­rop­a­thy, a numbness of the fingers and toes. This clin­i­cal in­ves­ti­ga­tion utilizes a com­bi­na­tion of a natural amino acid (amino acids are the build­ing blocks of dietary protein) and a special form of a B vitamin to limit Vel­cade® induced neu­rop­a­thy.

“This clin­i­cal trial is con­sis­tent with Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company’s commitment to continually im­prove cancer care,” said Randy Everett, Scientific Alliances & Research, Global Medical Affairs at Mil­len­ni­um. “By investing in this unique part­ner­ship with Northwest Natural Health Specialty Care Clinic, we will ad­vance our ability to provide cancer patients with the very best care that science can provide.”

The principal investigators for this trial are Dan Labriola ND, director of NNH and Hakan Kaya MD, medical oncologist, hematologist and researcher at Cancer Care Northwest.

“Natural medicines have been used suc­cess­fully throughout history to treat and prevent disease, relieve suf­fer­ing and im­prove quality of life. This clin­i­cal trial will provide hard scientific data for one of the many op­por­tunities to combine the best of both worlds, naturopathic care and conventional medicine,” said Labriola.

“Swedish Medical Center is best known for quality patient care but also conducts clin­i­cal research in many specialties,” said Marcel Loh, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Swedish Medical Center. “There are cur­rently more than 600 clin­i­cal trials in progress at Swedish. This clin­i­cal trial part­ner­ship with Northwest Natural Health Clinic is one more example of how we strive to make health­care as effective and efficient as pos­si­ble.”

About Northwest Natural Health Clinic

Northwest Natural Health Clinic (NNH) and its founder, Dr. Labriola, have provided coordinated integrative care in outpatient and in-hospital settings for more than 28 years. The clinic is an inter­na­tionally recog­nized expert in the safe and effective incorporation of the benefits of naturopathic care to im­prove treat­ment out­comes and patient quality of life. Their groundbreaking naturopathic ap­proach especially benefits patients receiving specialty medical care for cancer, heart disease, neurologic, women's health, gastro­in­testi­nal, immune system, elder care issues and more. NNH naturopathic physicians are specially trained, accredited and published in major scientific journals.

About Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company

Millennium, the on­col­ogy arm of Takeda Pharma­ceu­tical Company Limited, located in Cambridge Mas­sa­chu­setts, combines the inno­va­tive science of a leading American bio­pharma­ceu­tical com­pany with the glob­al assets – both intellectual and fiscal – of Japan's largest pharma­ceu­tical com­pany. Millennium’s mission is to deliver extraordinary medicines like Velcade® for the treat­ment of multiple myeloma to patients through­out the world. Millennium is passionately committed to science, inno­va­tion and patient health.

Patient Safety Information

Vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs and other supple­ments can, in certain cir­cum­stances, interfere with treat­ments for cancer and other diseases. Patients should not self-treat with supple­ments outside of the controlled en­viron­ment of this clin­i­cal trial without first discussing this with their physician.

Source: Northwest Natural Health Specialty Care Clinic.