Here’s what experts think about Elle Macpherson’s cancer treatment

Experts have encouraged patients to seek out evidence-based treatment options from trusted healthcare professionals after Elle Macpherson said she refused to include chemotherapy as part of her treatment for breast cancer.

Macpherson, 60, was diagnosed with breast cancer following a lumpectomy, a surgery that removes cancer from the breast. The model told Women’s Weekly that following the operation to remove her breast cancer seven years ago, she opted for an “intuitive, heart-led, holistic” approach to her treatment.

Macpherson told the magazine she is in “clinical remission” following her approach to treatment, which involved a primary doctor, “holistic dentist”, osteopath, chiropractor, naturopath and two therapists.

Elle Macpherson rejected chemotherapy after being diagnosed with breast cancer seven years ago.Credit: Getty Images

A spokesperson for Cancer Institute NSW said there was no evidence alternative therapies worked as a replacement for regular medical treatments.

The institute distinguishes between alternative therapies, which replace standard medicine, and complementary therapies (such as meditation, acupuncture and massage) which are employed alongside regular medical treatment to aid with the side effects and stress of having cancer.

Kristen Pilatti, chief executive of the Breast Cancer Network Australia, said it was important that people could choose the right treatment plans for them but encouraged individuals to discuss these with healthcare professionals first.

“Sadly, we do know that people are sometimes taken in by the alternative methods of treatment … instead of having good and trusted evidence-based healthcare,” she said. “But that is not what Elle is actually talking about because she, in fact, did have treatment through her lumpectomy, and then it was the additional treatment options that she then wanted to explore herself – and everyone has that right to do that.

“All we ask is that people go to really trusted sources of information to make the right decision for them.”

Leading breast cancer surgeon Professor Cindy Mak said Macpherson’s messaging was dangerous if it deterred women from following the advice given to them.

“I have met so many women with HER2-positive cancer [which the Women’s Weekly reported Macpherson had] who have declined chemotherapy, and they have done so to their detriment,” said Mak, who is based in Sydney.

“And these are women who do yoga, they are vegan, they go on health retreats, they exercise every day, they do everything … and they still die from the HER2-positive breast cancer.”

Mak urged against seeing alternative treatments as a first option to treating breast cancer and traditional medicine as a back-up plan.

“I do see people come back later with the HER2-positive disease all over, and it’s too late now – they’ve missed the boat.”

According to Dorothy Keefe, chief executive of Cancer Australia, the most important takeaway from Macpherson’s story is that no two people and no two cancers are the same.

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