skip to Main Content

Can Cancer Go Away Without Treatment?

Once upon a time, a diagnosis of breast or prostate cancer meant either lengthy and aggressive medical treatment or reconciling oneself to the idea that the cancer will grow and grow until it kills you. But might the idea that, if left untreated, these cancers will always kill you be nothing more than a fairy tale?

This month’s release of historically non-aggressive guidelines suggest, for some cancers anyway, it just might.

  1. The American Urologic Association (AUA) now recommends that certain men with prostate cancer should be offered the option of surveillance rather than treatment.
  2. The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) now recommends less frequent mammograms. The old recommendations were for an annual mammogram starting at age 40. The new recommendations are to start at age 50, and only get screened every other year.

A Kinder, Gentler Approach

The AUA has recognized that in treating prostate cancers that are unlikely to ever spread, doctors may have subjected hundreds of thousands of American men to unnecessary procedures and suffered needless complications, including loss of bladder control and sexual function. This is the rationale for less aggressive care. Nevertheless, the AUA worries that few people will take this safer option.

Cancer cell surrounded by immune system cells
Cancer cell surrounded by immune system cells

The USPSTF has recognized that by treating tiny, early stage breast cancers so aggressively, doctors may also have unknowingly subjected hundreds of thousands of American women to unnecessary procedures, leading to needless complications including disfigurement and even death, all the while assuming they were saving people’s lives.

This article is continued below...(scroll down)
Kobe Bryant

It helped. I feel great.

"It’s helped. I feel great."

Kobe Bryant
NBA baskeball player
megyn kelly

This has been life changing

"Let me tell you this has been life-changing. I have all of her books, in audible and ebooks! I have gotten rid of all the hateful 8 oils. I have trained my body to eat its own previously toxic body fat. Download that pod it's a game changer!"

Megyn Kelly
Jesse Watters

Life changing

Deep Nutrition changed my life.

Jesse Watters
Fox News Primetime host

Saved my life

I would like to thank you for literally saving my life. Back in February, I had to be hospitalized while on vacation in Phoenix with an A1C of 11% and had to start taking 2 types of insulin and 2 other meds. I read the Fatburn Fix in April, and followed the program to a tee, and I’m down by 15 pounds, 6.8 A1C, and only one once weekly diabetes medicine. Prior to reading the book, it was almost impossible for me to lose weight as a diabetic. 

Leontyne Tompkins

I feel free

For the last month, I have really been reading all labels on everything. I have completely remove those 8 oils you talk about. I must tell you, I feel great! I have more energy and I am now 197 lbs (have always been around 205 to 210lbs). I eat potatoes with real butter, grass fed steak, pasta with the right toppings. I eat everything! I seem to crave less sugar. I love it! 

Robert Kirkendall

I feel so much better

I had terrible aches and pains everywhere in my body, my hands, shoulders and knees. I feel so much better and the way I feel is motivating me every day! Thank you

Mike Deb Wootan Burcin

Better than ever

I am an anesthesiologist in Orlando and a huge fan of both of your books! I have been incorporating your principles for the last 10 months and feel that my health is better than ever.

Marnie Robinson, MD

My allergies disappeared

The biggest difference for me (and a surprising one) is that my allergies have almost completely disappeared! This is a big deal for me, because I’ve had allergies most of my life and they have often affected what I do which is a teaching music in [a public school district].  In general, I feel much better and have more consistent energy throughout the day.

Erica Turrell

Heart Palpitations have Stopped

I’ve lost 20+ pounds (also fasting 16-24 hours daily) and haven’t had palpitations except for one occasion — I had a mini bag of Fritos for the first time in July. And, I feel better now on a daily basis than I ever did all through college.

Mike Wright
Deep Nutrition and Fatburn Fix reader
Mitzi Wilkinson Champion

I’ve lost over 50 pounds

I’ve lost over 50 pounds. I’m 56 years old. Cutting processed food and unhealthy fats from my diet was one of the first things I did on my health recovery journey...I went cold turkey off the bad oils. Emptied my pantry into the trash and just started eating real food

Mitzi Wilkinson Champion

Knowledge I didn’t know I needed

Your Fatburn Fix book is amazing, my friend. Thank you! I’m an Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and I know my stuff. This is the extra layer of knowledge I didn’t know I needed. Well done!

Jennifer Dillman
Fatburn Fix reader

Lost a solid 20 lbs and my bloodwork is great

I have lost a solid 20 lbs and my bloodwork (after 3 months of eating your way) was even better! I was metabolically healthy (per your book) before I read your book, but barely. Lowering my weight, sealed the deal! I have been talking about you and your book to anyone who will listen...Thank you for all you’ve done and what you continue to do! You are changing lives for the better!

Missy Cramer
FatBurn Fix reader

Lost 20 lbs I could never shed

I love your Fatburn Fix!  Has helped me so so much!  I have had the dreaded weight all my life - 20 or so pounds I could never shed.  I have lost that now. I only eat 2 meals a day lunch and dinner with a glass of milk or cappuccino around 4 to hold me over. No snacking and not bad oils.  It has been the key to unlocking my fatburn.  I work out in the am and believe I am burning fat for energy not from food!

Lauren Smith

I feel great

My waist is four inches smaller. I feel great and many of the minor aches and pains that I had (knees and lower back) are gone. Also, my muscle tone is amazing, even though I have not increased my workout routine.

Richard Janelle
Completed Dr Cate's online course
Kent Matthes

The go-to for strength and conditioning coaches

Whenever I advise my clients about eating to perform I go straight to what I have learned from Dr. Cate. Her book Deep Nutrition has become the go-to for strength and conditioning coaches across the country.

Kent Matthes
Major League Baseball Agent with WME Sports
Ken D Berry

Dismantles the lie

Dr. Cate dismantles the lie that seed oils are healthy, which may the biggest lie about nutrition and health because it’s so insidious.  

Ken D Berry, MD
Author of Lies My Doctor Told Me
Dr. Drew Pinsky

She knows the chemistry

Dr. Cate alerts us to the harms of seed oils and she’s convincing because she knows the chemistry better than anyone.

Dr. Drew Pinskey, MD
Globally recognized internal medicine and addiction medicine specialist, media personality, LoveLine Host, and New York Times bestselling author
Kelly Starrett

No one is better at communicating nutritional truth

Dr. Cate has had the single greatest impact on how we talk to people about fueling for both performance or durability. While we all are a little unique, the foundational principles of human nutrition are immutable. If you are looking to create a more durable, resilient body, no one is better at communicating nutritional truth than Dr. Cate.

Dr. Kelly Starrett
Physiotherapist coach and New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author
Brian Lenkzes

Highly recommend The Fatburn Fix

Dr. Shanahan has had a significant impact on my practice of medicine. I am known as a Low Carb Doctor, but I never really appreciated the negative effects of processed seed oils on the health of my patients. I highly recommend The Fatburn Fix to my patients and have a loaner copy in my waiting room. It is amazing how quickly blood sugars and overall health improves with cutting seed oils. It is not just about the carbs!

Dr. Brian Lenkzes, MD
CEO of LowCarbMD San Diego, co-host of Low Carb MD Podcast and host of Life's Best Medicine Podcast
Chris Kaman

Respected in the sports world

Dr. Cate reordered my diet when I was with the L.A. Lakers, and the benefits, for me personally, were felt immediately and have served me to this day. I’ve come to take real food so seriously I started a small family farm. I know of no M.D./nutritionist more respected in the sports world than Dr. Cate Shanahan.

Chris Kaman
NBA Player
Mark Sisson

Brought seed oil issue front and center

Cate brought the seed oil issue front and center. Healthy fats matter. So much so that I created an entire product line to swap out bad fats with good.

Mark Sisson
Founding Father of the Primal/Paleo Movement
Dallas Hartwig

Optimal health starts with food

If you want to understand how optimal health starts with food, start with Dr. Cate. Her book Deep Nutrition leaves you with an appreciation of the profound relationship between our genes and the planet, inspiring us to be good shepherds of both.

Dallas Hartwig
Attribution author of The Whole 30
Dwight Howard

Helped me with endurance

Deep Nutrition really helped me with endurance. I started to feel better as a player. I was able to run more, I was able to be more active …and I just decided to keep going with it to this day.

Dwight Howard
NBA Player
Paul Grewal

Silver bullet for me

Dr Cate’s teachings helped me lose 60 pounds like it was nothing. It was like a silver bullet for me.

Paul Grewal, MD 
Dr Grewal Internal Medicine, MD, author of Genius Foods
Joesph Mercola

Radically improve your health…

Dr. Shanahan has provided a solid reference that deserves a place in the library of anyone who is seriously interested in nutrition. Her perspective on the vital role that healthy fat has in our diet is novel and, if implemented, can radically improve your health.

Dr. Joseph Mercola
Author of Fat for Fuel and Founder of Mercola.com
Dave Aspery

Pull up a chair…

I have based my work on the idea that getting the right kinds of healthy fats into your body and avoiding the worst fats is essential to optimal health. I've interviewed dozens of the world's top experts about this, and I know of no one who speaks more eloquently on this topic than Dr Cate. If she’s talking fats, pull up a chair. Take notes.

Dave Asprey
Author of the Bulletproof Diet

The key to unlocking my fatburn

I love your Fatburn Fix!  Has helped me so so much!  I have had the dreaded weight all my life - 20 or so pounds I could never shed.  I have lost that now. I only eat 2 meals a day lunch and dinner with a glass of milk or cappuccino around 4 to hold me over. No snacking and not bad oils.  It has been the key to unlocking my fatburn.  

Lauren Smith

Saved my life

I would like to thank you for literally saving my life. Back in February, I had to be hospitalized while on vacation in Phoenix with an A1C of 11% and had to start taking 2 types of insulin and 2 other meds. I read the Fatburn Fix in April, and followed the program to a tee, and I’m down by 15 pounds, 6.8 A1C, and only one once weekly diabetes medicine. 

Leontyne Tompkins

> Tears of joy

 I'm crying tears of joy and appreciation for all you've done for me and my health! Without Deep Nutrition and Fatburn Fix, I would literally still be in the vicious cycle I'd been fighting all my life! In a nutshell - I am no longer a compulsive overeating addict suffering under the crushing 'thumb' of all food and alcohol.     

Penni Wicks

 

Years ago, I asked one of Hawaii’s top breast surgeons what the natural course of a tumor were a patient to refuse treatment and let nature take its course. He told me he had never seen a study to answer that question so, unfortunately, he had absolutely no idea. Now, with support of USPSTF, more surgeons will hopefully share this honest appraisal with their patients and encourage them to re-prioritize their lives in order to pursue a healthier mode of living.

Your Body’s Best Defense: A Vigilant Immune System

We’ve all gotten used to the idea that cancer is universally devastating and that technology is the only hope for salvation. Our bodies have little defense, the thinking went, against this most evil of villains. Andrew Weil was one of the first to challenge this mythology, and in 2000 his book Spontaneous Healing cited several instances of patients who’s cancers spontaneously regressed. It’s now well accepted that our bodies may be busy slaying cancerous cells all the time. (The medical term for this is immunosurveillance.)

Unfortunately, we still have no way of identifying which cancers the immune system can and will catch and which it won’t.

With further study, we may learn that regression is the natural course for many early or non-aggressive cancers if we successfully support our immune system function with good sleep, exercise, stress reduction, and of course a healthy diet built around natural, authentic cuisine.

We’ve learned a lot about cancer in the past 20 years, but by and large we’re still in the Dark Ages. We have yet to fully understand and appreciate a healthy immune system’s role as a shield against incipient (and potentially also more advanced) cancers.

Bottom line: high tech solutions can be useful in a fight against cancer, but supporting your immune system with real food and a healthy lifestyle is the best way to live happily ever after.

Recommended reading on the fascinating topic of Immunosurveillance:

Cancer immunoediting: from immunosurveillance to tumor escape. Nat Immunol. 2002 Nov;3(11):991-8.
Abstract: The concept that the immune system can recognize and destroy nascent transformed cells was originally embodied in the cancer immunosurveillance hypothesis of Burnet and Thomas. This hypothesis was abandoned shortly afterwards because of the absence of strong experimental evidence supporting the concept. New data, however, clearly show the existence of cancer immunosurveillance and also indicate that it may function as a component of a more general process of cancer immunoediting. This process is responsible for both eliminating tumors and sculpting the immunogenic phenotypes of tumors that eventually form in immunocompetent hosts. In this review, we will summarize the historical and experimental basis of cancer immunoediting and discuss its dual roles in promoting host protection against cancer and facilitating tumor escape from immune destruction.
Tumor immunoediting and immunosculpting pathways to cancer progression. Semin Cancer Biol. 2007 Aug;17(4):275-87.
Abstract: Recent studies have suggested that a natural function of the immune system is to respond and destroy aberrant, dysfunctional cells by a process called immunosurveillance. These studies also suggest that the tumors that arise despite immunosurveillance have been immunosculpted by the immune system. The purported abilities of tumors to induce immune tolerance and suppression, the increased pathogenic behavior of the tumor cells following exposure to immune effectors and the loss of immunogenicity (i.e. immunoediting) often observed in advanced stage tumors could be the result of immunosculpting. In some cases, these immunosculpting features may be permanent and irreversible. However, in other cases, reversible epigenetic mechanisms may underlie the immune resistant tumor phenotype. Regardless, these immune-induced alterations could contribute to cancer pathogenesis. Understanding the mechanisms by which tumors evade immunity will be important for disease prevention and therapeutics.

With over two decades of clinical experience and expertise in genetic and biochemical research, Dr. Cate can help you to reverse metabolic disease and reshape your body.

Please note: Please do not share personal medical information in a comment on our posts. It will be deleted due to HIPAA regulations.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. I found this site because I wondered about the natural progression of cancer—what happens to a body when it gets cancer and decides against treatment? Is there a general wasting away? Are there different bodily responses to different types of cancer (I know there are, but what are the symptoms)? Why isn’t anyone studying this? Is it because people who get cancer want treatment? Are any of us willing to just take the disease to its natural progression? All those years that went by in history when there was no chemo or radiation—who studied and wrote about it during those times? Am I strange for wanting to know this? Might knowing this help the scientists and researchers find more types of cures and get them to focus more on prevention? So many questions, I know. But there are also so many questions about treatment, health care costs, protocols, medications, natural cures, and even the mind-body connection.

    1. I have had several patients with cancer who declined treatment. Two with lung cancer, one with salivary gland cancer, and one who had metastatic cancer to the spine from an unknown source. The man with salivary gland cancer also had renal cancer and both of these cancers did very little to him for fifteen years. He is now 86 and progressively weak and dying and is not having any pain so its hard to say if it’s from the cancer. The man with metastatic cancer to the spine died quickly and had a lot of pain in his back. One man with lung cancer died in 3 years, the other lived with it for more than 10 and then moved away so I don’t know what happened.

      In the days before chemo and radiation there was also no way to know anyone had cancer in its early stage, so we don’t know very much about the natural course of cancer. There’s no research funding if there’s no product to sell, so I don’t think there will be much progress in this area any time soon. I can say that I have never seen anyone who follows a traditional diet develop cancer.

  2. Very interesting topic!

    I suppose most of us are just programmed to think that to have any chance of surviving cancer we must undergo rigorous and debilitating treatments.
    I agree that we can all help ourselves by maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle, but I do feel that many people are not aware that fruit and vegetables in particular start to lose their nutritional content as soon as they are picked.
    So we need to promote FRESH healthy options.

    Does anyone else agree?

Note: Please do not share personal information with a medical question in our comment section. Comments containing this content will be deleted due to HIPAA regulations.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back To Top
Search