Ananda Lewis, the television host widely known for her time on MTV as a video jockey in the 1990s and her own self-titled talk show (2001-2002), recently revealed that she has stage IV breast cancer, and has taken controversial steps to save her life.
Joining a roundtable discussion on breast cancer with CNN Correspondent Stephanie Elam, Lewis, 51, shared her personal journey addressing how she first handled her then stage III breast cancer diagnosis in 2019. Against doctors’ recommendation, she chose nontraditional treatment and declined to have a double mastectomy to remove the cancerous tumor.
“The path I took in the beginning was, ‘let me figure it out,’” Lewis explained. “Environmental toxins … emotional stress. All the ‘whys’ of cancer are starting to become clear, and if we don’t start addressing those, the other stuff is a half measure for me, to me, which is why I didn’t do it.”
Initially, Lewis attempted homeopathic remedies to treat her cancer along with radiation, medications, and modified diet and sleeping patterns.
“My plan at first was to get out excessive toxins in my body. I felt like my body is intelligent, I know that to be true…I decided to keep my tumor and try to work it out of my body a different way,” Lewis said.
While Lewis saw improvements in the earlier stage of her journey, the abrupt turn of the COVID pandemic restricted her access to a variety of resources, eventually impacting her decision to undergo further treatment in Arizona, as she conceded to sessions of Insulin Potentiation Therapy (IPT) (administering insulin at the same time as chemotherapy drugs) temporarily reducing her tumor down to stage II.
Her tumor seemingly remained controlled up until 2023, when in October of that year, scans showed Lewis’ cancer had metastasized throughout her body, except for her brain, exacerbating the severity of her tumor to stage IV.
Is Homeopathy a Safe Path to Cancer Treatment?
Across the United States, breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women (after skin cancer); it’s also the second-leading cause of cancer death among women. Today, breast cancer mortality rates remain high largely due to a lack of access to screening, diagnosis, and treatment.
A study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NIH) analyzed a cohort of 277,127 women with breast cancer by utilizing the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data to assess the link between surgery status of breast cancer and race/ethnicity.
Among the patients, 1,468 (0.53%) declined recommended surgical treatment, similar to Lewis. According to the results: “Non-Hispanic Black women were 112% more likely to refuse the recommended surgical treatment for breast cancer compared to their non-Hispanic white counterparts.”
The results showed that Black women, “are more likely to refuse a recommended surgery for breast cancer treatment even when it is the main modality of treatment.”
Dr. Olutayo Sogunro, D.O., a Johns Hopkins breast surgical oncologist, has witnessed fervent pushback among numerous patients in fear of following surgical recommendations, and instead opting for holistic treatments.
“I literally have patients in their 30s, [where] their breast cancer is treatable. [I tell them what treatments I can offer them],” Sogunro told the Informer. “[They respond], ‘No, I’m going to go do this herbal supplement, I’m going to go to this natural healer who says I can treat breast cancer.’”
Sogunro said the sole reliance on alternative medicine for aggressive cases of breast cancer is worrisome, as she staunchly disapproves of community members leading people to believe that they have natural remedies for the disease.
“There are no holistic creams, pills, vitamins, juices, that treat breast cancer. I want to make that very clear,” Sogunro stressed. “Don’t they think if there were natural remedies that treated breast cancer, the scientists would have a cure already?”
Among diasporic communities of color, familial traditions and belief systems are found to impact the common apprehension of conventional health care. But while homeopathic medicines have been widely used by patients for management of cancers, its efficacy is still under question.
Songuro recognizes the varying benefits of functional medicine or adjunctive therapies like acupuncture, for example, to help decrease byproducts of the disease including stress levels. However, if her patients desire alternative care, Songuro said she stresses the importance of using those modalities in conjunction with modern medicine, but never in place of it.
“Too many Black women in my care have died because they refuse the right for me to do their surgery or refuse the chemo, refuse the treatments that are actually studied and evidence based, that can actually take care of the breast cancer,” Sogunro said.
Sara Sidner, CNN reporter and longtime friend of Lewis, was also interviewed during the roundtable discussion, sharing her breast cancer journey and plan of treatment taken post diagnosis.
Contrary to Lewis, Sidner was eager to proceed with the recommended surgery.
“I was like, get this out of me. Cut it out, chemo it out, burn it out, choke it out, talk it out, whatever you had to do, get it out, and do it now,” Sidner explained. “I want an immediate response, I want it right now.”
Sidner underwent five months of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, and radiation therapy. She has 10 years of cancer medication ahead of her.
Despite witnessing others adhere to conventional medicine to treat breast cancer including her mother and close friends, Lewis’ apprehension of Western medicine encouraged her decision to approach the disease in a nontraditional manner, which she regrettably questions in hindsight.
“Looking back on that, I go, ‘You know what? Maybe I should have,’” said Lewis. “[But] I didn’t have good options. They wanted to take both [of my breasts], they wanted to do all these big things that I was not ready for.”