In a new book that recently hit the shelves, actress and former cancer victim Suzanne Somers tells cancer patients to consider shunning traditional chemotherapy treatment for their disease and opt for a variety of non-FDA-approved alternative therapies instead. It’s a book that alarms organizations like The American Cancer Society (ACS), which sees Somers’ book as hazardous to the collective health of cancer patients everywhere.
“I am very afraid that people are going to listen to her message and follow what she says and be harmed by it,” said Dr. Otis Brawley, the ACS’s chief medical officer, in a recent Associated Press article. “We use current treatments because they've been proven to prolong life. They've gone through a logical, scientific method of evaluation. I don't know if Suzanne Somers even knows there is a logical, scientific method.”
Somers, who was diagnosed with breast cancer 10 years ago, isn’t the only celebrity who has been promoting the use of alternative methods for treating cancer. Radio host Don Imus talks about his very unconventional cancer treatments on the air and even Oprah Winfrey jumped on the bandwagon, proclaiming that Somers “just might be a pioneer.” Winfrey’s statement angered doctors nationwide.
The search for alternatives to traditional therapies like chemotherapy and radiation, which can carry a hefty amount of side effects, isn’t anything new. Actor Steve McQueen, who died of the asbestos-caused cancer known as mesothelioma in 1980, traveled to Mexico to try to find new ways to beat this tough-to-fight form of cancer and, many experts believe, started a trend that prompted other sufferers to seek something other than traditional chemotherapy.
Mesothelioma doctors, like the ones who treated McQueen before he went to Mexico, note that they are far from content with the treatments available for mesothelioma, a cancer that is generally not diagnosed until its late stages and often kills within a year of diagnosis. That means research continues. Doctors like David Sugarbaker, MD, of Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Center, are consistently testing new methods for mesothelioma treatment, hoping to find one that is more efficient in the fight against the disease.
Sugarbaker is lauded as the creator of the tri-modal approach to mesothelioma treatment, which includes the use of a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation for better results. In addition, as the founder of the International Pleural Mesothelioma Program, Dr. Sugarbaker has dedicated a portion of his career to finding other new and novel treatments for the disease; treatments that are not only effective but also safe for the patient.
In the meantime, doctors and the ACS hope celebrity watchers take Somers’ advice with the proverbial grain of salt. “There's a tendency [for celebrities] to oversimplify medical messages,” stresses Brawley. “Well, oversimplification can kill,” he adds.
