Clinical research
«Research and integrative medicine are not mutually exclusive!»
Did you know that doctors at the ZIO are involved in clinical research and regularly publish their study results in specialist journals? We spoke to Dr. Valeria Milani, who is particularly active in this area. She is convinced that active research activity is also of great benefit to patients - including through the opportunity to take part in internal or external clinical studies.
Dr. Milani, how important is clinical research at the ZIO?
It is very important. This may surprise many people, as they believe that clinical research and an integrative approach to medicine are mutually exclusive. But this is by no means the case - on the contrary! State-of-the-art conventional medicine is and remains our basis. Research in the field of integrative oncology means scientifically investigating and validating integrative approaches. This is also of great benefit to patients.
In what way?
Networking within the research community gives us the opportunity to recruit patients for clinical trials, for example. In this way, we are effectively expanding the range of therapies that we offer at the ZIO. For example, I have a patient who came to me at the ZIO for hormone therapy, but I was then able to register her for a trial with a new drug via the Breast Center Zurich, with which we have a partnership. The patient was still able to stay with me at the ZIO and use complementary medical services such as mistletoe therapy in parallel. The bottom line is that this is great added value.
What areas have you personally researched and published in recently?
In recent years, I have been working in the field of real-world and healthcare research as well as medical didactics. These studies revolved around the question of how cancer treatments can be implemented as effectively as possible in everyday life. For example, how side effects of modern immunotherapies are recognized and treated in clinics and practices, how medical students can be prepared for outpatient cancer care or how patients can be better supported in taking cancer medication at home.
Dr. med. Valeria Milani is Head Oncologist at the ZIO Zurich, she also works at the BrustCentrum Zurich at Zollikerberg Hospital and at the Bethanien Private Clinic in Zurich. The specialist in internal medicine, oncology and hematology is a member of the breast cancer project group at the Swiss Cancer Institute.
Would you like to find out more about the studies mentioned?
- Hemato-oncological outpatient care in medical education: a German pilot-project.
- Evaluation of therapy support through a standardized nursing consultation for patients undergoing oral tumor therapy in gynecological oncology within the prospective CAM-PA initiative.
- Real-world management and outcomes of immune-related adverse events in German cancer care: A multicenter analysis using the SERIO registry.
