7 Japanese Seek Cancer Cure on Mont Blanc Climb
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CHAMONIX, France — Seven Japanese cancer patients, hoping to beat the disease through sheer willpower, set off Friday to climb Mont Blanc, Europe’s highest mountain.
The three women and four men, aged between 47 and 60, are following a Japanese treatment which calls for patients to strengthen their willpower through severe physical tasks.
The team plans to take three days to reach the 15,770-foot summit.
“Cancer is a disease which has its origin in the mind,” said Ginro Itami, a doctor from Okayama prefecture in Japan, who has spent three years organizing the trip.
“A mental treatment is necessary to allow cancer sufferers to expend their energy and kill their tumors,” he told a press conference in the Alpine village of Chamonix.
French doctors admire the team’s courage and determination but are skeptical of the treatment’s ability to rid the body of tumors.
Cancer specialist Raymond Latarjet, former director of the Curie Institute in Paris, said he did not see how the expedition could cure cancer.
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