Can eating extremely healthily go some way to reversing the effects of cancer?

[BaconAndAvocado]

A friend has a very rare bowel cancer which isn’t centred on a lump/tumour.
The surgery she has been offered would result in life-changing consequences re mobility as well as a stoma. She is a very selfless person and has told me that she would be relying on people too much post-surgery. She also thinks it would drastically alter or end her relationship with her DH.
She has refused this surgery and is trying to stop it spreading by eating a no sugar, organic, free range diet. She has also started yoga, Pilates etc.

Will her approach work?

I’m extremely worried about her whilst trying to support her and understand her decision.

I can understand how this approach might help prevent a cancer diagnosis but to stop it?

No it won't work. She'll probably die. Her DH can't be worth much if he won't see her through this.

Your friend will be in shock and trying to process things.

Does she have access to a counsellor, or can she speak to her specialist, who can help her go through her options and the risks if she refuses this surgery?

What does her dh think? Is he supportive?

Maybe your friend is right and the side effects of the surgery re mobility make it not viable for her.

All you can do is support her. I'm sorry - it sounds like a very difficult situation.

Of course it's not going to work, she will die.

If I was you I would tell her that and encourage her to get the stoma. People live with them all the time. The surgery gives her a chance of life, not having it doesn't.

Sorry to say, OP, but I know someone who died after making this decision.

Her husband needs to be reassuring her that he will support her. He must step up.

No it won't work, nor will it prevent it. Does she know it will end her relationship or is it just her perception?

In my experience with my husband's rare cancer then the answer is no.
Healthier eating can make you feel better in yourself but will do nothing to the cancer.
I've read so much on how sugar "makes cancer grow" etc, but if you really get into the chemistry of each cancer by reading medical research and not reading "stuff off the internet" you'll see it's not that simple.
All cancers are different and work in different ways. My husband's cancer started because a certain gene mutated when he was aged 55. No amount of healthy eating is ever going to reverse that. The mutated gene is in every cell in his body. It's driven by this dodgy gene, not sugar etc.

But all cancers are different, there's no one size fits all unfortunately.
But in the years I've spent fighting for the best treatment for him, changing his diet has never been suggested as a way of improving matters in relation to his cancer.

It might be worth putting her in touch with a support group for people who've had this surgery to learn about what it's actually like. People often believe that life would be unbearable with disability X/Y/Z but in most cases people adjust much better than they'd have expected.

springtimeishereagain I’m trying to support her decision.

Ive obviously offered support and help if she does decide to have the surgery.
Her consultant has told that one day she will ask for the surgery.

I’m not in her shoes but I just want her to be around.

Her consultant is a surgeon so is only able to offer surgery.
She’s going for a second opinion at another hospital.

She has had radiotherapy.

She said that if it was breast or ovarian cancer she would have the surgery.

GreenClock I agree with you re her DH but I feel that saying this won’t benefit her at the moment.

Clymene that is just her perception. Obviously I don’t know the exact conversations that she and her DH have had.

Also if it was as simple as making changes to one's diet then we've found the "cure for cancer" and no-one would get it or have it.

BattledoreAndShuttlecock
Her consultant suggested she watched a video of people who had had the same surgery, made by the NHS.
She said that some had positive outcomes but others had many complications as well as mobility issues.

It is a huge operation that will take away a very large area.

No I’m afraid not. I have had this with cancer patients going down the natural route and then charging their minds too late and dying. If it was as easy (and cheap) as giving out some carrots we would be doing it. Treatments cost ten of thousands of pounds. The NHS spends that cos they work OP.
Good nutrition will aid her recovery from surgery, but that’s as far as it goes.
I agree with a PP that said that she needs to see a stoma nurse and really get all the info she needs. Some areas have psychological specialists such as psychologists to help with times like these and I always recommend Magggies Centres to any cancer patient as they are excellent.

MiddleAgeLurker and AndStand this is exactly my thinking.

Eating healthily can make you feel better and can make life a little easier for the bowel in terms of lightening the load it has to process. That said, eating super-healthily with lots of pulses etc can make you feel worse because of gas and bloat which can be really painful with a compromised bowel.

It will not cure cancer. She is signing her own death warrant and lining herself up for a particularly unpleasant death. I'm sorry to be so brutal, but it is true.

Hundreds of thousands of people live long, happy and productive lives with stomas. People do not live with untreated bowel cancer.

I know you want to be supportive but 'supporting her decision' in this context means 'agreeing to support a slow suicide' - you really OK with that?

Sorry to be brutal but this is very close to home rn.

And yy - if it was just a matter of chomping a few carrot sticks I wouldn't be off to a meeting to finalise my DBros will today while he still has capacity. FFS.

Spudina thank you for that recommendation.

The idea of waiting too long and then it’s too late is terrifying.

Nope.

I have an older friend who had a rare form of bowel cancer in his 40s. He got it removed and then spend a decade talking to people in person about having surgery. He's now in his 80s. Yes he does have the side effects from surgery and as a result eats much better, but is otherwise fit and healthy.

I think one really good thing you could do is work with her to reframe what a 'positive outcome' means. In this scenario, it means 'still being alive after 5 years' - it's a very blunt stick. Some people who are still alive may have compromised movement, stomas, dietary restrictions etc to cope with. But that's still a positive outcome because they are still alive. There aren't many shades of grey here - it's alive or dead. Anything that's not dead is positive.

Why do you need to feel you have to support her decision? I honestly don't think I could. I would say 'darling friend, I think you are making a terrible decision. You will die and leave your family behind. Why not at least try the treatment? I will support you.'

She's an adult & entitled to make the decisions.
if it's too painful for you to watch you may have to be a smaller presence in her life.

What is the prognosis for full remission if she has the surgery -- it doesn't sound like a surgery that will cure this kind of cancer.

It’s very sad but I have seen this in palliative care - people who haven’t had sugar or gluten or anything “unhealthy” all the way until they pass away. They refuse cake on their birthday and refuse champagne at celebrations by their bedside. It changes nothing. It does not stop cancer spreading.

@kylie127

Yes I have heard the raw vegan diet works for it

This is complete shit and you should be ashamed of yourself for posting this.

PP have stated clearly what happens if you don't have conventional medical intervention plus there is other information that you can easily find that shows this alone doesn't work.