Has Australian supermodel Elle Macpherson discovered how to successfully treat cancer without chemotherapy or extensive surgery?
At first glance it would seem so, as in a remarkable story of recovery, the 60-year-old revealed she was diagnosed with breast cancer seven years ago, but despite being advised to have a mastectomy, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormone treatment, she followed the advice of her 32 doctors and decided to take a holistic approach, including meditation and naturopathy.
And thanks to this, he says, he is now in remission.
Australian model Elle Macpherson in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, in 2022
Her cancer, diagnosed after a lumpectomy, was a form known as HER2-positive, meaning it is driven by the protein human epidermal growth factor receptor 2; it can be a faster-growing type, but has a good survival rate if it hasn’t spread beyond the breast.
Generally speaking, it’s not very helpful to cite celebrities who have had cancer and rejected orthodox treatment, especially since not everyone can rely on a multitude of complementary or alternative therapists (let alone 32 doctors) or spend eight months in a house in Arizona “focusing and devoting every minute to healing[herself],” as Elle did.
But what worries me is that Elle is being seen as an example of how cancer treatment should be. And yet, even though it has been seven years since she was diagnosed with the disease, it would be a mistake not to be cautious: the story is not over yet.
This is not to say that I am against the use of alternative therapies: some of them can work.
Over my nearly 50 years of medical practice, I have seen many friends and patients who have followed a similar path, but have had mixed results.
A close friend of mine, a doctor, was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia. At that time (in 1980) there was no treatment as such and no suitable donor for a bone marrow transplant, which was the only possible option at that time. So I called Deepak Chopra, an alternative medicine doctor and now New Age guru, who was just starting out at the time (hence I could call him!).
He advised my friend to meditate, drink clarified ghee and eat only fresh, vegetarian food. He also told him to stop having sex. My friend did all this (except the celibacy part) and survived for 18 years, before leukemia underwent a transformation and ended his life in a matter of weeks.
Another close friend developed a brain tumor and refused radiation therapy, opting instead for the Gerson therapy (involving a strict vegetarian diet and up to five coffee enemas a day), which turned out to be quite cruel.
It wasn’t the coffee enemas, but the fact that she was only allowed to drink juice from crushed fruits and vegetables (she was not allowed to drink cold water), so she was very thirsty. Until the end of her life she felt miserable and longed for a glass of water. She only survived a few weeks.
Another patient, a patient with malignant melanoma that had spread to the brain, had multiple lesions “destroyed” by CyberKnife therapy (where beams are fired at the target from multiple directions). But she attributes her survival and good health years later to multiple complementary therapies — and why not?
The important thing I take away from all these experiences is that you can benefit from both options: betting all-in on lifestyle, but also on orthodoxy: betting on both sides. An all-risk approach.
In fact, complementary therapy is so called because it can work alongside orthodox treatment, and no sensible, intelligent doctor would discourage a patient from trying it. Even if there is no evidence, one need only look at the proven benefits of the placebo effect.
(Of course, we need to be careful about treatments that might interfere with conventional medicine, which is why Cancer Research UK’s advice is to speak to a doctor first.)
The holistic approach helps because it doesn’t just target the tumor itself, but the entire patient, something that conventional medicine researchers are now looking at more and more closely, specifically the impact of lifestyle in terms of stimulating the body’s immune responses to fight cancer and reducing inflammation linked to the disease.
This involves exercising, getting enough sleep, reducing stress, and carefully choosing foods to improve the microbiome (the community of gut microbes now linked to inflammation and disease). Even activities like tai chi or yoga are backed by evidence.
Elle Macpherson on the beach at 50
In just one example, breast cancer patients who exercised regularly were found to be 55 percent less likely to have their disease recur and 68 percent less likely to die from any cause, according to a 2020 study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
On the other hand, studies show that the state of gut microbes at the start of treatment is “the single greatest predictor of how long a patient survives,” said Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London.
Meanwhile, Professor Robert Thomas, an oncologist at Bedford and Addenbrooke’s Hospitals, has pioneered research into the role of diet and lifestyle in cancer treatment: he says research shows significant health benefits from eating a diet of fruit and vegetables, gut-friendly fibre and probiotics (beneficial bacteria).
I have seen many patients whose cancer has spread and been eradicated by aggressive orthodox treatments, yet those same patients have been glad that it was the work of their complementary therapist that allowed them to survive.
What matters is that complementary therapists help patients to maintain hope. And sometimes conventional doctors forget that this is important too.
But I’m still not convinced that Elle Macpherson has the answers for anyone but herself.