'The Whole Pantry' creator Belle Gibson attempts to explain why she lied about having cancer on 60 Minutes. Courtesy: 60 Minutes/Channel Nine

YOUNG cancer patients are dying because they are refusing science-based medical treatment, instead choosing to “cure” their disease through diet, says one of Australia’s top oncologists.

And the rise of “wellness bloggers” like Belle Gibson and Jess Ainscough on social media means an increasing number of patients are using “exclusion diets” as an alternative treatment.

In an article published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday, Melbourne doctor Ian Haines wrote that cancer patients need to be warned there’s no proof they can be cured by diet.

But vulnerable and desperate patients continue to opt for them, often not seeking medical help until their potentially curable disease has spread and become incurable.

Patients are researching their diseases online and find themselves being “constantly beckoned, assailed and seduced” by celebrities and personalities with glowing testimonials about new dietary “breakthroughs” that will cure their cancer, wrote Dr Haines.

He cites an example of a woman who claimed to have cured herself of thyroid cancer by eating pineapples.

Dr Haines told news.com.au it is extremely distressing to see his young patients die after ignoring his advice.

“I’ve had people in their 20s with pre cancer in the breast. They decline surgery to remove it and come back when it’s an invasive cancer two or three years later,” he said.

“You offer them surgery again and they decline it. They come back after spending tens of thousands of dollars on alternative therapies and by then the cancer is even worse.

“I can think of one case where [the patient had] solid tumours with pus and blood. That person died. And another person came back with secondary cancers in the bone and lungs.”

The popularity of diet-based cancer treatments isn’t new. Australian author Ian Gawler established the Gawler Foundation in 1984 and famously advocated a “lifestyle-based approach” to curing cancer. Gawler follows the Gerson diet, a diet-based treatment which includes plant foods, raw juices, coffee enemas and supplements.

Jess Ainscough, who also followed the Gerson diet, died in March this year at the age of 30 after a long battle with cancer.

Steve Jobs ignored his pancreatic cancer for nine months, pursuing a vegan diet, acupuncture and herbal remedies, before finally having surgery in July 2004.

But Dr Haines says cases like Belle Gibson and Jess Ainscough have brought these treatments back into the public domain.

“It started with her [Gibson],” he said. “I was amazed at the number of people who bought her app and were exploited.”

Cancer Council Australia’s nutrition spokeswoman Claire Hughes says patients often choose dietary approaches because they are looking for a quick fix.

“At the time of diagnosis there is so much going on that people do look for more information. What you put in your body is something they can control at a time when everything seems totally out of control,” she said.

“Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are quite serious treatments, of course you would have some trepidation. They something think, ‘What are some of the others ways I could treat my cancer without having to go down that path?

Dr Haines says he is frustrated with people who believe oncologists only support drug-based treatments because they are in bed with the pharmaceutical industry.

“You’ve got all these conspiracy theories that think we’re in cahoots with the drug companies and that’s why we advocate medicine. Some people just get inundated with these conspiracy theories and they’re hard to negate,” he said.

“It’s frustrating, but at the end of the day my job is to help people make an informed choice.”