Donald Abrams, MD, is Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California San Francisco and a general oncologist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. He provides Integrative Oncology consultations at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine.
“I believe people, especially those getting cancer treatments, really benefit from having both a Western diagnosis, as well as a whole-person approach. Good nutrition is an important part of the prescription, but other options are: fitness training, massage, acupuncture, herbs, biofeedback, meditation, guided imagery, integrative psychiatry, yoga, or tai chi.”
Donald Abrams, MD, is Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California San Francisco and Chief of Hematology / Oncology at San Francisco General Hospital. He provides Integrative Oncology consultations at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. He is co-chair of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center’s developing program in Supportive Care.
He served as Assistant Director of the UCSF Positive Health Program at San Francisco General Hospital and was chair of the Community Consortium, a professional association of more than 200 primary care providers treating Bay Area patients with HIV. He conducted numerous clinical trials investigating complementary therapies in patients with HIV including therapeutic touch, Traditional Chinese Medicine interventions, medical marijuana, medicinal mushrooms and distant healing.
His interest in botanical therapies led him to pursue a two-year Fellowship in the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona which he completed in December 2004. His particular passion in the field involves nutrition and cancer. Since completing his Fellowship, Dr. Abrams has been providing Integrative Medicine consultation to people living with and beyond cancer at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. He remains interested in conducting clinical trials in integrative oncology particularly investigating medicinal mushrooms, Traditional Chinese Medicine interventions and massage.
Dr. Abrams was the President of the Society for Integrative Oncology in 2010 and has been a member of various Education sub-committees of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He was Chief of the Hematology-Oncology Division at Zuckerberg San Francisco General from 2003-2017. He co-edited the Oxford University Press textbook in Integrative Oncology with Andrew Weil, MD. He was also named a Top Cancer Doctor in Newsweek‘s Special Health Issue on Curing Cancer, in the category of Medical Oncology (details).
