(Sarto Schickel and Sun Hee Lee, alternative cancer treatment advocates)
Sun Hee Lee has survived well past the one year given to most cancer patients diagnosed in stage IV. Survived and thrived, in fact--Mrs. Lee will be participating in a run/ walk to raise money for ovarian cancer this Sunday, Jenice Armstrong reports in the Philadelphia Daily News.
Ms. Lee, of West Philadelphia, "has been defying the odds since being diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer in 2007. By the time doctors discovered the reasons for her nagging cough and swollen abdomen, the cancer had spread to her chest cavity."
The one-year survival rate for most patients diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer is 17 percent. But four years after Ms. Lee's stage IV cancer diagnosis, "she's pushing on, combining elements of the controversial Gerson Therapy, which claims to cure cancer and other ailments, and a macrobiotic diet, which emphasizes whole grains and fresh vegetables to promote good health."
Armstrong points out that what Ms. Lee has been doing with alternative treatment (also known as complementary medicine) "hasn't been proved scientifically, " adding that "the idea that a coffee enema has health benefits that could help someone with cancer sounds like quackery." (The coffee enema was a noted part of mesothelioma patient Steve McQueen's unorthodox treatments.) But Sun Hee Lee and her husband Sarto Schickel believe that the holistic cancer treatments have helped her.
What makes these treatments complementary is that Lee did underwent surgery and chemotherapy "in addition to the unconventional practices she adopted on her own."
In an email to Jenice Armstrong, Mr. Schickel explained his beliefs about Gerson therapy: "While more research is certainly a positive, there is a lot that folks can be doing in addition to their conventional medical treatment in their own homes. This is stuff which is a perfect complement to conventional medicine and is the stuff that my wife did, in addition to conventional medicine, in order to get her remarkable results to date."
We wish Ms. Lee best of luck in the run/walk in Philadelphia this Sunday, and the best to her and her husband in their fight against cancer.
