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When a London, Ont., cancer patient was told she would need surgery to remove an oral cancer, then have a piece of leg or arm tissue grafted into her mouth, it seemed too much to bear.

So she turned to a natural-health practitioner, who for two years treated the malignancy with applications of rosehip oil.

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By time the woman returned to hospital, “literally half her face had been eaten away by cancer,” says Dr. Leigh Sowerby, the ear nose and throat surgeon who was part of her treatment team.

“The family had been told by the alternative-health provider that it was a good sign, because it meant the treatment was drawing the cancer out of the body,” he recalls. “She ended up dying in hospital before we could do the surgery.”

It’s just one example of what doctors say is a persistent and troubling phenomenon: cancer patients who lose valuable time — and risk their lives — by trying unproven alternative therapies.

Steve Jobs caused a posthumous sensation when it emerged he had delayed surgery on a treatable form of pancreatic cancer to try acupuncture and other non-medical remedies.

But at a time when Canadian governments are validating natural-health professionals and products like never before, the Apple chief executive officer is far from alone.