Cancer: when misinformation hinders healing

“Useless” chemotherapy, demonization of sugar or “alternative” treatments: false information about cancers can seriously harm patients, leading to delayed care, complications and even death, warn professionals and associations.

“It’s a daily problem,” assures AFP Dr Mario Di Palma, medical oncologist at the Gustave-Roussy Institute in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne).

If the repercussions of misinformation remain difficult to quantify, this seasoned practitioner often deconstructs false beliefs, mainly “around diet, fasting, food supplements”. Many patients want to stop sugar, “because they read on social networks that it feeds tumors” – which is false.

“Sick people are looking for levers on which they can act, and diet is one of them, but we must remain cautious,” points out Émilie Groyer, doctor in biology and editor-in-chief of the website of the magazine of the Rose Up association, which supports women with cancer.

A strict diet can “weaken” patients: if they are malnourished, “patients tolerate treatments less well, have to reduce the doses, and this affects their prognosis,” she explains, referring to a member who was fasting and who, too tired, had to suspend her care.

Hoping to counteract adverse effects due to treatments or improve their well-being, many people affected by cancer also resort to food supplements, often without medical advice, according to several oncologists.

However, these supplements can notably disrupt the body’s elimination of certain treatments.

Loss of luck –

“In Gustave-Roussy, several people each year experience kidney failure or hepatitis due to an interaction between a food supplement and an anti-cancer drug,” says Dr. Di Palma, emphasizing the need for a climate of trust with the patient.

“It’s trust and support in integrative oncology that I lacked,” Christine (who only gives her first name), 57, suffers from breast cancer, tells AFP.

When in 2021, she relapsed and learned of the existence of metastases, she agreed to have her ovaries removed but then refused hormonal therapy with targeted therapy because she felt “too weak”.

She then tested other methods – not scientifically proven. “I changed my diet, stopped sugar, I drank vegetable juices,” she describes. After two years where she “was doing better,” she explains, her condition deteriorated again, pushing her to resume medical treatments.

“Be careful of the time factor,” warns Caroline Mercier, general director of Rose Up, “when you spend several months taking supplements, self-medicating, and postponing treatments, the loss of opportunity is very significant.”

More vulnerable, people with cancer are also “the preferred targets of ill-intentioned individuals or more structured movements”, warns Hugues Gascan, president of the Sectarian Phenomenon Study Group (GéPS).

Purging and eating raw –

He invites us not to “dissociate therapeutic drift and sectarian drift”, citing as an example “Germanic medicine”, promoted by Ryke Geerd Hamer and based on the false idea that cancer arises from a “psychological knot”. This approach gave rise to “biological decoding or cellular deprogramming, sold as being able to cure cancer,” he notes.

Died in 2017, Mr. Hamer was convicted in 2004 in particular for complicity in the illegal practice of medicine after the complaint of a man whose wife, “suffering from breast cancer, died after refusing experienced treatments”, notes the latest report from the Interministerial Mission to Combat Sectarian Abuses (Miviludes).

Camille suffered a similar “drift”, according to the AFP account of her cousin Laura (first names changed).

After the announcement of her breast cancer, Camille consulted a naturopathy figure. “She told him that cancer didn’t exist, that it was just toxins that you could get rid of with purges, essential oils, and eating raw,” says Laura.

Camille comes out with a “pseudo-prescription for oils and a specific diet”, but her condition deteriorates quickly, her weight drops, her pain becomes unbearable. After two years, she returned to medicine but “it was already too late”, slips Laura, whose cousin died a few years later.

Hence his desire to warn of the risks of abuse: “The victims are not guilty, but victims of fraud professionals”.

AFP