"Have you seen the Breast Cancer Treatment section in this Sunday's The Observer?", my partner asked. As he handed me the 32-page supplement on 29 September, I was hoping to see a holistic approach to breast cancer treatment. However, upon turning to page 2, with full-page advert from pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb Oncology, along with statement that the Guide was produced in partnership with Dr Foster, my heart plummeted, knowing that what we had was the 'medical' version of breast cancer treatment – surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, devoid of any mention or notion of nutrition, herbal medicine, massage, reflexology, aromatherapy, acupuncture or any other complementary treatments which may be helpful in either treating the cancer, or at the very least alleviating some of the very nasty symptoms and side effects inflicted by conventional medical treatments.

Published Research is inspirational for me. In this issue, MacPherson et al reported that of a total of 34,407 acupuncture treatments, there were no serious adverse events reported. There were 43 significant minor adverse events such as nausea and fainting, bruising, etc. This is a huge endorsement of acupuncture as being safe. I wonder how would this compare with the same number of conventional medical treatments?