Health

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ― The 13-year-old Minnesota cancer patient who fled the state with his mother rather than face chemotherapy underwent a round of the treatment he feared Thursday -- and doctors have vowed to soften the symptoms with natural methods favored by his family.

Treating the often harsh symptoms of chemotherapy with practices outside Western medicine is increasingly common at hospitals around the country, and doctors at Children's Hospitals and Clinics had wooed Daniel Hauser and his family back to chemotherapy by saying it could be part of his treatment.

Daniel attended his chemotherapy session Thursday, according to Jim Navarro, a spokesman for the family. Navarro had no immediate update on Daniel's condition. A hospital spokesman wouldn't release information about the procedure, citing patient confidentiality.

The Hausers, who initially resisted chemotherapy out of a preference for alternative, American Indian-based treatments, faced immediate legal consequences if they skipped the appointment. Daniel attended an appointment a day earlier at the same hospital.

Daniel, who suffers from Hodgkin's lymphoma, had an earlier round of chemotherapy that his family said made him sick and hardened both the boy's and his parents' resolve against further chemotherapy. A judge in southern Minnesota's Brown County ordered the treatment anyway, prompting Daniel and Colleen Hauser's week on the lam.

Earlier this week the Sleepy Eye family agreed to accept chemotherapy, but in doing so received assurances from Children's Hospitals that doctors there would integrate some of the alternative or natural treatments favored by the Hausers. Using non-Western medicine practices -- everything from acupuncture to yoga to vitamin supplements -- to deal with the side effects of cancer is an increasingly common practice at many major hospitals and cancer centers, including Children's Hospitals.

"In American medicine in general, more and more people are turning to complementary practices," said Dr. Susan Sencer, head of pediatric oncology at Children's and also co-founder of the hospital's Center for Integrative Medicine. "We started the program in great part because we did believe that some of the things called complementary or alternative medicine could be helpful in dealing with the symptoms of cancer and chemotherapy."

Doctors who work in what's now most often called integrative medicine are quick to point out it's not meant as an alternative to traditional cancer treatment.

"There are no viable alternatives to mainstream cancer care," said Dr. Barrie Cassileth, chief of the integrative medicine service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. In cancer treatment, such practices "really don't affect the tumor in any direct way, but deal with the sometimes very serious symptoms of cancer treatment."

Chemotherapy involves injecting the cancer patient's body with chemicals that kill fast-growing cancer cells, but despite its success rate chemotherapy can be a blunt instrument: It also kills fast-growing healthy cells, which is why chemo patients usually experience hair loss, for instance. It also commonly causes nausea and vomiting, fatigue, pain and weakness, and anxiety and depression.

"A lot of people want to avoid chemotherapy because they're afraid of it, and what they're actually afraid of is the symptoms," said Dr. Lucille Marchand, clinical director of integrative oncology services at the University of Wisconsin Paul C. Carbone Cancer Center. "And symptoms can be treated."

Several integrative medicine specialists said acupuncture or acupressure in particular has proven to be an effective way to treat the nausea that's an almost universal symptom of chemotherapy. Doctors said a patient like Daniel, because of his youth, could respond well to relaxation techniques like yoga or tai chi, as well as simple aerobic exercise.

Ginger or peppermint oil is also commonly used in child cancer patients as another effective nausea reliever, said Mary Jo Kreitzer, director of the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota.

Despite the fact that integrative practices are taking hold at many of the most prestigious medical institutions in the country, such techniques still have detractors -- many within the medical community itself.

R. Barker Bausell, a researcher at the University of Maryland School of Nursing who formerly worked at the school's complementary medicine program, recently published a book claiming most integrative medical practices amount to little more than a placebo effect.

"You can't say it doesn't help, because you can't say placebos don't help," Bausell said. "People want to believe in it, and they're willing to pay for it. It's adding another layer of cost to our extremely expensive medical system."

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One of the quotes on the home page of Daniel Hauser's Web site says: "You see, I am a medicine man. Some times we teach, and some times we perform. Now, I am doing both. I will lead by example. On my spiritual path, I am also known as a Great Spirit. I have lived many times before. So, 13 years is nothing to me."

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)