When someone dies of cancer, it's generally safe to say that the cancer, not the treatment, is responsible. But Suzanne Somers believes that it was chemotherapy, not pancreatic cancer, that killed Patrick Swayze. “They took a beautiful man” and “put poison in his body,” the former Three's Company star told a columnist at a party for Tom Ford's movie, “A Single Man.” “Why couldn't they have built him up nutritionally and gotten rid of the toxins?” Somers, herself a breast cancer survivor, seems to believe fruits and vegetables could have saved Swayze, who died on September 4^th at age 57 after a 20-month battle with pancreatic cancer, the fourth leading cancer killer in the U.S.

As an actress Suzanne Somers has played many roles, but this does not give her the right to play the role of a physician or to provide medical advice. Somers' misguided comments are not only disrespectful toward Swayze and his courageous battle against a pernicious disease, they are highly irresponsible. It's one thing for a celebrity to share his or her own personal experience with the public in the hopes of raising awareness and potentially saving lives (as Swayze himself did), but it's quite another to make assertions with no basis in fact. And the facts are: 1) Suzanne Somers is not a doctor. 2) Chemotherapy is a proven,medically accepted treatment for cancerwhich has saved many lives. 3) Few, if any, actual doctors would consider “building someone up nutritionally” to be a responsible treatment for cancer. By using Swayze's death as an opportunity to promote her own agenda, Somers is potentially undoing the work Swayze did to promote awareness of pancreatic cancer and its treatment.

Pancreatic cancer is particularly deadly because there is no way to effectively screen for it, so symptoms don't usually appear until the cancer has already metastasized (spread to other regions). This makes successful treatment difficult. When Swayze's cancer was diagnosed in March of 2008, it was already in Stage IV, which means it had spread to the liver. According to the American Cancer Society, the five-year survival rate for Stage IV pancreatic cancer is 1%. The life expectancy of someone with Stage IV pancreatic cancer is often only 3-6 months. That Swayze not only survived for 20 months during his cancer battle, which included aggressive chemotherapy and the experimental drug vatalanib, but even managed to film a TV series (The Beast) during this battle, is a testament to improvements in pancreatic cancer treatment.

“Three's Company” was a good show. The ThighMaster has probably saved countless thighs from flabbiness. But neither these credentials nor Somers' personal experiences with cancer qualify her to dispense medical advice. Somers' remarks typify the harm that well-intentioned celebrities cause when they use the limelight to spread misinformation about serious health issues. Talk about toxic. The American Cancer Society, whose website provides information on both traditional and alternative methods of cancer treatment, advises cancer patients to look for certain red flags when exploring alternative methods. One of these red flags is “are you told not to use standard treatment?” By claiming that chemotherapy killed Swayze, Somers is waving a big red flag. Celebrities should only play doctors on TV or in the movies, not in public where they could endanger lives.

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