THE NUTRITIONAL THERAPY OF CANCER

The subject of cancer medicine crops up regularly in the media, as a rule heralding a new wonder drug, promising treatment or genetic discovery (which then is never heard of again), but recently the tone of such articles has changed. A while ago a commentator began his piece in The Times with this sentence: 'The great aim of modern cancer treatment is not necessarily to cure patients but to allow people to die with their tumours and not because of them.' More recently, a long article by an oncologist appeared in the Guardian under the title, 'Should we stop trying to cure cancer?' His conclusion was that as half of all men and one third of all women are likely to develop cancer, having the disease should be regarded as 'normal' – meaning, presumably, that not to have it would count as 'abnormal', according to the rules of Orwellian double-speak. This is certainly a change from the gung-ho, any-minute-now-we'll-beat-cancer stance of the past several decades. Meanwhile from the CAM – Complementary and Alternative Medicine – side of the cancer jungle new communications arrive, such as the two books under review here. Prof. Cunningham represents the psychological approach, Lawrence Plaskett the nutritional method to heal cancer, and between them they set up a neat polarity. This is the third, revised British edition of Canadian-born Alastair Cunningham's book, 'Healing Journey – Overcoming the Crisis of Cancer', first published 19 years ago in Toronto. The author, himself a recovered cancer patient, is an eminent biologist who in mid-career branched out into clinical psychology and used both disciplines in working out a self-help programme for sufferers. His main aim is to help them cope better with the psychological and physical ravages of both the disease and the treatments, e.g. chemotherapy. He is critical of available medical treatments which he describes as largely ineffective and often harmful to the patient. But he is even more sharply dismissive of nutritional and dietary therapies, while admitting that he knows very little about them; this brings him uncomfortably close to those allopathic doctors who reject his method without understanding it. At the same time he naively asks why establishment medicine suppresses all other approaches. Is Professor Cunningham not aware of the financial side of the cancer industry? The main theme of the book is 'healing from within', helping the patient to find meaning in the disease itself and, more widely, in his or her own life. It offers tools for stress release, for re-programming negative inner attitudes and discovering the spiritual dimension within. All this is pretty familiar, but it can act as a lifeline for the newly diagnosed, terrified patient, desperate for psychological support. Having worked with cancer patients myself for twenty-plus years, I know what a big improvement a psychological re-orientation can bring, even on the physical level. To quote Prof. Cunningham, 'Healing and curing are not the same. Healing can take place whether or not the cancer is cured, and can also take place towards the end of life. The focus is on helping people improve their quality of life at any stage of their cancer journey.' After this lucid, well-organised work Lawrence Plaskett's book seems to me a tragically wasted opportunity. As a biochemist, practitioner of nutritional, herbal and homeopathic medicine, the author is enormously knowledgeable, but doesn't know how to communicate his knowledge. For one thing, the text is bristling with crude mis-spellings, repetitions (one statement occurs 3 times in 8 lines), 'principle' and 'principal' are having identity problems and get it mostly wrong, while singular and plural are often confused. Toxins are detoxified and contributions are contributed. The poor quality of the writing makes reading a chore. A professional editor might have turned this work into a winner, besides slimming it down by half. Alas, no such person was at hand. Dr Plaskett makes some important points, but they are hidden in acres of verbose text. He rightly deplores that post-operative cancer patients get no help to improve their condition and prevent a recurrence of the disease; he gives a fine, dispassionate critique of orthodox treatments and contrasts them with the naturopathic approach, and he points out the importance of nutrient supplementation to children and delinquents, which has already proven to improve the behaviour of both groups. All this is valid and essential information, but hard to find without reading every line of the text. And what about Dr Plaskett's therapy? He advocates an organic plant-based diet, the exclusion of animal protein, fat and a range of undesirable foods, he emphasises the importance of detoxification by means of coffee enemas and castor oil treatment – all of which are components of the long established, well documented Gerson Therapy. Yet Dr Max Gerson, M.D., is first mentioned on P.187 and then only in a condescending way as a forerunner of Plaskett's own approach, which smacks of arrogance spiced with hubris. If the author had improved or expanded Dr Gerson's work, all would be well. Instead, he only produces a confusing, imprecise 'protocol' which few, if any, patients could possibly understand and apply. Having worked my way through the full Gerson therapy over two years, I know what a scientifically constructed, rational nutrition-based protocol is like - and it's certainly very different from this one. Lawrence Plaskett's work deserves better than this amateurish, topsy-turvy book. I hope he will get together with an experienced, medically qualified editor and produce a really useful work on the nutritional therapy of cancer. It would fill an enormous gap and perhaps help to infuse new ideas into mainstream cancer medicine.

What I should also like to see is a book presenting all the best, properly tested inner and outer approaches, adding up to a truly holistic new-style cancer therapy. At present the CAM camp seems as divided and as specialised as any allopathic discipline. Prof. Cunningham rejects out of hand the enormous healing potential of nutritional therapy, while Dr Plaskett totally ignores the role of the psyche in sickness and health. Yet cancer is a systemic disease that affects both body and mind and has to be healed on both levels. Combining organic broccoli with a re-programmed positive Weltanschauung would be a promising first step.