There has been no recorded case of cancer being cured by 'macrobiotics'.

The concept of "starving cancer cells" with a macrobiotic diet is a misconception.

Professor Mai Trong Khoa, former Director of the Center for Nuclear Medicine and Oncology, former Deputy Director of Bach Mai Hospital, said that during his many years of clinical practice, he has not recorded any case of cancer being cured by a macrobiotic diet alone.

The sad thing is that some patients, after receiving the results from the hospital, abandon all treatment regimens advised by the doctor, leave the hospital to go home and follow a "cancer cell starvation" diet (macrobiotics), and then practice a certain method. As a result, when they return to the hospital, the patient falls into a state of severe exhaustion.

Many patients who were detected at a very early stage with many treatment opportunities have now entered stage 3, stage 4, or even the final stage on an exhausted body - which is very unfortunate.

“At this time, instead of applying treatment regimens, doctors have to fight exhaustion by infusing protein, sugar, nutrients, etc. to improve their physical condition. And many of those patients have passed away due to exhaustion before dying of cancer,” Professor Mai Trong Khoa shared.

According to Professor Mai Trong Khoa, everything needs to be based on evidence and clearly verified. In modern medicine, clinical nutrition is considered a treatment method combined with drugs and other treatments. The view of "starving cancer cells" leading to patient exhaustion is an incorrect perception.

We need to understand the nature of the problem: We need a healthy body to create a good immune system, and only with good health can we have healthy immune cells capable of detecting, inhibiting, and destroying pathogens - including cancer cells.

Cancer cells themselves also need nutrition and they will take nutrition from the patient. If the cancer patient is not provided with enough energy, the patient will lose weight, become exhausted, not have enough health to fight the disease and will not respond to specific treatments such as surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, etc.

Therefore, patients and their families should not be gullible, wasting money and time, and then losing the opportunity for proper treatment right from the golden stage, Professor Mai Trong Khoa warned.

Currently, in addition to treatment methods such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, endocrine therapy, targeted therapy, there is a new method called immunotherapy. If in the past we directly affected and destroyed malignant cells by surgery, chemicals, radiotherapy, targeted therapy, etc., now, by immunotherapy, we help immune cells (T cells, etc.) of the immune system recognize and destroy tumor cells. This is an indirect treatment method.

Macrobiotics

“It is necessary to consider proper and scientific eating and nutrition as an indispensable part in preventing and fighting cancer,” Professor Mai Trong Khoa emphasized.

Professor, Dr. Le Thi Huong, Director of the Institute of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Head of the Department of Nutrition, K Hospital and Hanoi Medical University Hospital, said: "Some people argue that why monks are still healthy despite being vegetarian? I have researched and learned that these people have to eat a lot of rice, vegetables, sesame salt... Many vegetarians have to go to the hospital for examination because of signs of musculoskeletal problems, teeth, lips, tongue, vitamin deficiency... Therefore, for cancer patients, they should not follow the macrobiotic method but still have to eat like normal people. Up to now, there has been no research proving that macrobiotics can be applied to cancer patients."