In Memory of Dr. Nalini Chilkov: A Colleague, Pioneer, and Gentle Force in Integrative Cancer Care

Dr. Nalini Chilkov’s recent passing is a tremendous loss to the community of patients, practitioners, and colleagues who knew her work.

Nalini was a pioneer in integrative cancer care. She spent decades helping people with cancer think beyond the narrow frame of disease management and into the larger question of health: how to support the body, protect vitality, reduce treatment burden when possible, and help patients feel more informed and less alone.

Her own language captured this beautifully. She believed that every cancer patient deserved “a plan for their health,” not only a plan for their disease. 

Over the last fifteen years, Nalini and I shared a number of patients. They came to us for acupuncture, pain, fatigue, neuropathy, digestive issues, anxiety, broader integrative cancer guidance, nutrition, herbal medicine, and long-term survivorship support. I always felt that she cared deeply about the whole person in front of her, not just the diagnosis.

She was also a lovely person. Warm, intelligent, generous, and took the work incredibly seriously without becoming cold or clinical. In fields like ours, where patients are often frightened, overwhelmed, and trying to make sense of confusing medical information, if not outright looking into the face of their mortality, the human element is so crucial.

The Importance of Whole-Person Cancer Support

Anyone who has worked with cancer patients knows that the medical treatment plan is only one part of the lived experience. I’ve worked alongside oncologists for over twenty years and it’s amazing to see how care continues to improve not just in terms of conventional care, but in the expansion of integrated care.

Patients will ask:

How do I sleep while I’m terrified?

What do I eat?

How do I deal with fatigue?

Can acupuncture help with pain, nausea, neuropathy, or stress?

Which supplements are safe, and which might interfere with treatment?

How do I support my immune system without making exaggerated claims?

How do I recover a sense of agency when my body suddenly feels unfamiliar?

This is where thoughtful integrative care can be helpful - as a careful, individualized way of supporting the patient’s health, resilience, comfort, and quality of life while they go through all of the stages of treatment.

Nalini understood this. Her work helped define a model of care in which cancer patients were not reduced to scans, staging, and lab values. They were people with bodies, families, fears, hopes, habits, symptoms, and lives that needed tending.

Continuing the Work

For patients who are searching for Dr. Nalini Chilkov because they knew her, worked with her, were referred to her, or found her writing after her passing: I want to offer my condolences.

No one replaces a practitioner like Nalini.

But the need she cared about remains. Cancer patients still need careful support. Survivors still need help rebuilding. People in treatment still need guidance around symptoms, stress, nutrition, pain, sleep, digestion, and the fear that often accompanies the diagnosis.

At our clinic, we continue to provide integrative support for patients with cancer and cancer histories, including acupuncture, dry needling when appropriate, pain care, stress regulation, functional medicine-oriented thinking, and careful coordination around conventional medical treatment. We do not replace oncology care. We work alongside it.

That distinction is important.

Good integrative care should make patients safer, clearer, and better supported — not more confused, isolated, or vulnerable to unrealistic promises.

In Gratitude

I am grateful to have known Nalini as a colleague.

I am grateful for the patients we shared.

I am grateful for the seriousness and compassion she brought to cancer care.

And I hope that those who were touched by her work will continue to feel the imprint of her central message: that a person with cancer deserves more than a disease plan. They deserve a health plan, a support system, and a way to remain fully human while navigating one of life’s most difficult experiences.

May her memory be a blessing.

If you are a current or former cancer patient seeking integrative support in Los Angeles, our clinic provides acupuncture, pain care, stress support, and whole-person integrative care designed to work alongside your oncology team. You can contact us to discuss whether our approach is appropriate for your situation.