Let me reproduce an e-mail which I received from a lady in Italy on 26 June 2010.

Dear Dr. Teo,

My sister has a lump in her left breast. She found out about this lump, it was the size of a dollar coin, three years ago. Last year when she finally decided to tell us, her family, about it, it was already one breastful, 8cm in diameter. But she has decided not to do any surgery. It’s hard to accept her decision. My parents are very sad, but I’m trying to live with this. I know she’s very afraid but tries to act as if nothing’s happening.

I succeeded to bring her to a hospital to have a breast USG while I was home last year. I live in Italy and she lives in Jakarta, and it’s a bit complicated when you’re far from each other.

I’m writing to ask whether we could consult you. Reading from your website, I haven’t found anyone who hasn’t done any surgery prior to taking your herbs. Is it necessary that we do a complete blood test and bring it to you? The only medical record we have is the USG result done last year.

If you could give us some of your time, I’d like to arrange a visit with you for my sister in August 2011.

Thank you very much,

Yours truly,

YL, Italy

Reply: She has to remove the tumour. It is too big. Herbs cannot make the tumour go away.

Once in a while over the years, we have ladies coming to us with tumour(s) still in their breasts, like the case above. They had these tumour(s) for some months or years and did not do anything about it (them).  Okay, some did something like going to see certain alternative practitioners who assured them that there was nothing to worry about. They were told, Take this or do this and the lump will go away! And they believed these practitioners. Sad tragedy follows.

If you are one such lady, let me tell you this: Don’t be dumb! If you have a lump or lumps in your breast, please go and see a doctor and have it determined if it is malignant or not, i.e. whether it is a cancer or not.  If it is a cancer, my next advice is: Have a surgeon remove the tumour or your whole breast.

After surgery, it is a different “ball game” whether or not you want to undergo chemotherapy or/and radiotherapy. But to me, surgical removal is a wise option in dealing with a breast tumour. I recall many instances of ladies who came and “asked me to agree” that they don’t go for surgery. I told them: There is no way I would agree with that.   You come to me for advice and I give you my advice free of charge, based on my years of experience dealing with breast cancer. Some of them were disappointed because I insisted that they go for surgery. Some became  angry with me for not “supporting” them.

These are two main reasons why I thought the tumour has to be removed surgically.

1. It is better to have the tumour removed for psychological reason. After the surgery, the lump is gone. You don’t have to see or feel it is there in your breast anymore. But if the lump remains in your breast, every day or perhaps every time of the day, you are being reminded of your “fatal disease”. Would that not make life miserable for you?
2. There is no guarantee that herbs, change of diet, exercise, prayer, supplements, etc., can make a malignant tumour disappear. The bigger the tumour, the chance of it disappearing is even more remote. A lady told me that after taking herbs for some months the tumour in her breast “burst.” Another lady said her tumour “dropped” out and left a hole in her breast! All these do not solve the problem. Some patients say the herbs seemed to stop the tumour from growing but in other instances, the tumour kept growing in size. See the pictures below and decide for yourself if this is what you want.