New Delhi: Former cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu’s claim that dietary modifications and lifestyle changes helped cure his wife’s late-stage breast cancer have prompted country’s top oncologists to declare that complementary therapies should not be mistaken for actual cancer treatment. Some have pointed out that drastic changes in nutrition could even prove to be “counterproductive”.
At a press conference Friday, clips from which went viral on social media, Sidhu said that a rigorous dietary regime for over a year helped his wife—Navjot Kaur (Noni)—recover from cancer, following diagnosis of the disease at stage IV, when the malignancy had already metastasized. The oncologists, said Sidhu, had put the chance of his wife’s survival at 3 percent but she was later declared clinically free of cancer.
As video clips from the press conference went viral, the Mumbai-based Tata Memorial Centre—India’s leading cancer treatment institute—issued a statement Saturday clarifying that there is no “high-quality” evidence to support the effectiveness of such dietary modifications.
Experts ThePrint spoke to said that families of cancer patients often make unmonitored lifestyle changes based on unscientific advice and advertisements.
According to Dr Vishwajeeth K. Pai, consultant medical oncologist with HCG Cancer Centre in Bengaluru, treatment modalities such as radiation, chemotherapy and surgery have been scientifically proven after years of research and clinical trials and need to be individualised for every patient.
Dietary modifications are only complementary to the ongoing scientifically proven treatment as mentioned above and not a replacement, he underlined.
Making drastic changes in the diet and nutrition can worsen the overall health of the patient undergoing treatment and, in our experience, will be counterproductive, Pai said.
According to the details shared by Sidhu, his wife’s daily diet included lemon water, apple cider vinegar and raw turmeric, apart from neem leaves and Tulsi. In addition, he also mentioned sour fruits and juices made from pumpkin, pomegranate, carrot, amla, beetroot and walnuts that were an integral part of her diet.
Sidhu described berries and a spiced tea as powerful remedies for malignancy while also sharing that his wife had undergone treatment at both a government hospital and a private facility in Punjab.
In its statement, the Tata Memorial Centre said, “It has been brought to our notice that, in a video widely circulated on social media, it has been claimed that advanced stage cancer can be successfully treated by several dietary modifications,” the hospital said in a statement issued Saturday. It added that the treatment of cancer involves the use of treatment modalities like surgery, radiotherapy, and systemic therapy such as chemotherapy and other drugs, individually or in combination, depending on the type and stage of cancer.
“We urge the public to report to an appropriate healthcare facility if there are any symptoms of possible cancer, and, if diagnosed with cancer, to take evidence-based treatment as advised by trained physicians,” it said.
There is no good-quality evidence to support the use of dietary advice reportedly suggested in the video, for cancer treatment,the hospital said, further urging people to exercise discretion and caution when they come across social media messages suggesting remedies for cancer.
Before the premium cancer hospital put out the statement, 262 current and former doctors from the institution, in a statement issued Saturday, also urged people not to follow “unproven” remedies but to seek and continue treatment with a cancer specialist.
Much needed statement issued by @TataMemorial . This should clear any misconception that cancer patients or caregivers may have after recent viral video about use of diet and other methods to achieve so called ” CURE ” for the advanced cancer . Let’s avoid such… pic.twitter.com/SOeX0pzk5U
— Dr Amol Akhade (@SuyogCancer) November 23, 2024
A World Health Organization (WHO) report released in February this year revealed that India recorded 14.13 lakh cancer cases in 2022, with breast cancer being the most prevalent, accounting for 192,020 cases.
The report also showed that more women, compared to men, had reported malignancies in the country in 2022, while 9.12 lakh people succumbed to the disease that year.
Dr Sajjan Rajpurohit, a senior oncologist with Max Hospitals in Delhi, pointed out that alternative and complementary medicines and lifestyle changes can help patients deal better with side-effects of cancer treatment such as chemotherapy and radiation.
“While certain foods have a positive impact on the body during the treatment and healing process, only food and complementary medicines may not have a direct role in curing patients of cancer as there is no robust scientific data to prove this,” he told ThePrint.
Another oncologist with Bengaluru HCG Cancer Centre, Dr Sreenivas B.J. echoed Dr Rajpurohit. Cancer doctors worldwide, he said, support use of complementary therapies as adjuncts to enhancing quality of life but advise against relying solely on alternative modalities for cancer treatment.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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