Ju (not real name) is 36 years old. Her problem started with severe headaches. Then both sides of her neck became swollen, making it difficult for her to turn her head. She had to take painkiller everyday.

Ju consulted an ENT specialist in a private hospital. She was told that she had either NPC (nose cancer) or lymphoma. Whatever it was, Ju was asked to undergo six cycles of chemotherapy. She would probably have to undergo radiotherapy as well. The doctor told Ju that with the treatments she would have a 80 percent chance of cure. Ju promptly rejected medical treatment and came to seek our help.

Gist of our conversation.

Chris: What did they want you to do?

Ju: Chemo (6 times) and radiation (did not ask how many times).

C: Did you ask if chemo and radiation are going to cure you?

J: Eighty percent chance of cure.

C: Eighty percent?

J: Yes.

C: What happen if you don’t do the treatment?

J: May be die la! No, I did not ask.

C: Do you believe that success rate is 80 percent?

J: No!

C: Why don’t you believe the doctor?

J: Because of bad past experience. My mother also had chemotherapy for her lymphoma. She was 63 years old then. She was supposed to do 6 cycles of chemo but she died after finishing 5 cycles.

C: She died?

J: Yes.

C: Where did she do the chemo?

J: In Penang (the same oncologist that Ju went to). That was 5 years ago, in 2010.

C: So you know that chemo does not cure cancer but can also kill.

J: She was bald.

C: She had 5 cycles and that means about 5 months of treatment.

J: Yes. Each cycles cost IDR 5 million.

C: So for 5 cycles it cost IDR 25 million. Money gone, mother also died. I understand. It is very hard for me to push you to go for chemotherapy. It is difficult. You are still young — 36 years old. And now they tell you to go for 6 cycles of chemo.

J: No, I don’t want chemo. That’s why I am here.

Comments

In the internet chat room, one doctor wrote:

• I was a cancer chemotherapy specialist doctor for twenty years.I treated thousands of people with various combination chemotherapy regimens. I don’t think I killed any of them with the treatment – though over two thousand died from their cancers.

I am going to ask the same question that I asked Ju: Do you believe what this “great” cancer doctor said?

One reader wrote this.

• Nobody can or will give you any guarantees with chemotherapy.Why do think it will most likely kill you? What evidence are you basing this on? … Some people conclude that the treatment is worse than the disease, and myths about people being killed by chemo bolster this belief. It isn’t always effective. But in those cases it is the cancer, not the treatment, that kills the patient – they have died in spite of treatment, not because of it.

So now, the logic is …. it is the cancer that kills you, not the poisonous chemo! That is what they want  you to believe. Another good selling point.

Read what some other people said: