A woman in Philippines was diagnosed in June 2011 with stage 4 pancreatic cancer the size of a fist that had metastasized to the liver and ovary.   The patient could not undergo any surgery to remove the tumor.  Doctors told her she had three to six months to live.

The patient visited a local integrative medicine center to seek medical attention.   She was told that she could use natural therapies or a combination of natural and conventional treatments.  She did not want to use any chemotherapy and chose to use natural approaches to healing her deadly metastatic pancreatic cancer.

She started to follow a plant-based diet and avoid foods derived from animals such as dairy products, and meat.  She started drinking carrot juice and did coffee enemas twice daily, a typical routine of Gerson therapy.  And she also received vitamin C and bio-oxidation treatments, and used other supplements such as soursop and Dr. Rath supplements.   These treatments normalized the results of pancreatic cancer test, indicating that she was free of pancreatic cancer.  She practiced Christianity and had a very positive attitude. 

She died in Aug, 2015 and she was 46.   It remains unknown what she died from.  If she suffered recurrence of the disease, then she may not be considered a survivor.  But she was able to survive stage 4 pancreatic cancer for fifty months, which is a miracle, considering doctors only gave her three to six months to live.

Pancreatic cancer is probably the most dangerous cancer.   It is very difficult to diagnose in its early stage.  Like in this case, when it was found, it was already stage 4 and had spread to other organs.  The five-year survival rate for stage 4 pancreatic cancer is generally no more than 1%.

This case along with many other cases proved that regardless of the type of cancer, status of conventional treatments or whether he is going to have a five year survival, natural treatments including use of certain functional foods, nutritional supplements, and a plant-based diet or vegan diet can greatly benefit the patient.  

In a word, patients with any cancers including deadly pancreatic cancer should pay attention to their diet and lifestyle.   Dr. Linus Pauling, Dr. Ewan Cameron, and colleagues conducted a study and proved that of cancer patients who received conventional treatments such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy or surgery, those who also used nutritional therapy lived much much longer than those who did not. (David Liu)

Comment:  Food consumers need to understand that in many cases of cancer, a long cure is hard to achieve.  Using alternative treatments can help the patient even if he opts to receive conventional treatments.  But no matter how you treat it, patients may still die much earlier than they are normally expected to.   

Michael Gearin-Tosh had survived a very-hard to treat blood cancer for about 11 years.  He did not use chemotherapy.  But he died much earlier than normally expected.  David Servan-Schreber - another remarkable cancer fighter who suffered a deadly brain cancer used both conventional treatments and integrative medicine and had survived for 19 years and died around 50.  Normally, they are supposed to live until 78 or 80?   But not everyone may live to die at 80 even if he does not have any cancer.