Best-Selling Author Returns to UPMC to Lecture on His New Book, 'anticancer - A New Way Of Life'

PITTSBURGH, September 8, 2008 – David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD, will discuss his book "Anticancer - A New Way of Life" during a lecture at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 15, in the Herberman Conference Center at UPMC Shadyside, 5150 Centre Ave., Shadyside.

The presentation will include an hors d'oeuvres reception at 6 p.m. and a question-and-answer session following the lecture, which is free and open to the public.

People living with cancer, along with medical professionals and educators, are invited to the event to gain an understanding about advances in traditional and integrative medicine and their effect on cancer. Dr. Servan-Schreiber will focus on nutritional and mind-body approaches that can strengthen a person's natural defenses, including the immune system. He also will offer advice on lifestyle changes that can make a difference in cancer outcomes.

"The message of this book is very simple: All patients with cancer should know that there are many things they can do to help themselves do better than the stark survival statistics they're often given," said Dr. Servan-Schreiber. "We can all learn to create an anticancer biology in our body. There is no guarantee that it will stop cancer, but it will often slow it down. And nobody I know ever regretted trying."

A cancer survivor, Dr. Servan-Schreiber is a psychiatrist and cognitive neuroscientist. He is the former director of the Center for Integrative Medicine (CIM) at UPMC Shadyside and former chief of UPMC Shadyside's division of psychiatry and director of the behavioral science teaching program.

He returned to his native France in 2001, but remains clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and a lecturer at the University of Lyon in France. He has published more than 90 scientific monographs and was one of the founders of Doctors Without Borders USA, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.

"Scientists who have studied cancer agree that it is the result of many different processes going awry, and it has multiple causes. We all have cancer cells in our body, even when we are quite healthy. The scientific evidence shows that cancer is what happens when the factors that feed cancer growth begin to outnumber the factors that support our natural defenses," said Dr. Servan-Schreiber. "If we have cancer, we should then try to reduce as many of the cancer promoters in our lives as possible." Tobacco, excessive alcohol, sugar, and omega-6 and hydrogenated fats should be reduced, he noted, while everything that supports the body's natural defenses, such as vegetables, fruits, certain spices and cooking herbs, physical activity and stress management techniques should be increased.

For more information about the presentation, please call (412) 623-3023.

The CIM is dedicated to clinical services, education and research on an evolving form of health care where disease prevention, practitioner/patient partnership and the evidence-based application of non-conventional treatment strategies are explored in collaboration with conventional medical practices.

To learn more about the center, please visit CIM on the Web at http://integrativemedicine.upmc.com/.

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