Was it holistic therapy or just luck? Former model Elle MacPherson has spoken about the breast cancer she suffered and overcame without chemotherapy, according to what she says in her autobiography: Shewhich has just been released in Australia.
The excerpt published in the magazine Australian Women’s Weekly MacPherson said he had a breast lumpectomy at age 53, seven years ago. Analysis of the tumor tissue revealed that he had intraductal carcinoma that was HER2-positive for estrogen receptors and that Doctors recommended a mastectomy, radiation and chemotherapy, then hormone therapy and finally breast reconstruction..
Instead of following those recommendations, the former model – who owns a natural beauty and wellness supplement company – says she consulted a “holistic dentist,” naturopath, osteopath and chiropractor, among others, and spent eight months on her “healing journey.”
“In traditional terms, you’d say I’m in clinical remission,” he explains, “but I’d say I’m in total well-being. And I am!”
Although she is fully convinced that her healing journey is responsible for her clinical remission, the oncologists consulted by this newspaper do not see things so clearly.
“It reminds me of when someone says their grandfather still smokes at 97,” he says. Alvaro Rodriguez-Lescurehead of the oncology department at the General University Hospital of Elche. “But that’s not a valid argument: he was lucky but he took a gamble.”
Eva Ciruelosoncologist at the 12 de Octubre Hospital in Madrid, recalls that “these individual experiences should not have an impact on the decision-making of patients or vulnerable people, who are more sensitive to this type of information. This can harm many patients.”
Although each breast cancer is treated individually, a common path for localized tumors (such as MacPherson’s is believed to have been) is surgical removal and several rounds of radiation or chemotherapy.
The objective of these cycles is kill cancer cells that may have migrated from the tumor and this, therefore, would not have been removed by surgery.
But, as Rodríguez Lescure and Ciruelos point out, this risk is a matter of probability. “You can have a 90% chance of a tumor relapsing, but that also means that there are 10% that do not,” explains the oncologist from Alicante, who also highlights the incongruity of the information provided by the old model: “Intraductal carcinoma is never treated with chemotherapy.“.
“It’s a question of probability,” he continues. “The fact that this is a particular, individual case of someone who has surgery and doesn’t relapse doesn’t mean it’s good policy: they may have been lucky.”
Ciruelos emphasizes that doctors’ decisions are based on the scientific method, “which maintains a very demanding rigor when it comes to demonstrating that something in health works: a treatment, a diagnostic test… All of this involves years of work, a lot of research, etc. Until one intervention is shown to be better than another and is standardized.
Fear of chemotherapy
Although there may be other types of recommendations (lifestyle, diet, physical activity), the oncologist emphasizes that these “will never replace conventional treatments.”
“There is room for everyone, but we cannot allow unproven alternatives to replace treatments that have demonstrated health outcomes.”
Behind a decision like MacPherson’s there is also the fear of chemotherapy, which he even describes as “the kiss of death.” Rodríguez Lescure points out that “This is not a pleasant treatment and therefore the recommendation must be very well founded.“.
However, there are people who tolerate it better than others and, in addition, there are tools to know which tumors can benefit from chemotherapy and which cannot, “and we have been applying them daily for 15 years, with which we have managed to prevent many patients from receiving it.
“We must take stock of what we gain and what we can lose. But, when it is indicated and can lead to the cure of the disease, we must assume the risks of side effects.”
