An imaginative, innovative, and fact-based exposition of the many reasons why scientific validation studies should be implemented for the effects of meditation on the body's cells, as practiced by cancer patients in support of their treatments. Based upon real patient case experiences and drawing observations from a 26-year private practice as a counselor supporting cancer patients undergoing conventional cancer treatment, the author builds the case for further investigation. With this anticipated validation, a new specialty of conventional medicine is proposed that can research and develop the combined effectiveness of co-applying conventional cancer treatment modalities of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, cancer drugs, and immune therapy together with applied meditation, and energy-based techniques in new, innovative treatment protocols, to shorten and optimize harsh, and hard-to-endure, cell-destructive treatment phases, and stimulate earlier implementation of cell-stimulating phases. Woven into the discussion are facts about current cancer treatments, use of meditation and related techniques, historical yogic background information about meditation, and recent scientific imaging studies of meditation-induced effects to the brain. The 'case' concludes with a summary of potential clinical investigations, and imaging instrumentation development, that could theoretically take place to help usher in a future new specialty of conventional medicine that intertwines existing fields of psychology, radiology, oncology, Chinese medicine, and spiritual practice. Recommended for i) students of medicine, engineering, and the biosciences who plan to work in the fields of cancer treatment and the imaging sciences; ii) students of meditation, healing arts, and spiritual studies who wish to integrate their work with conventional medicine.
