In The Spotlight: Living Cancer-free

Kate Thorp, a 48-year-old real estate broker, says alternative therapies—CBD oil, intermittent fasting, and a gluten-free diet—saved her life after a devastating cancer diagnosis

- Chris Mann

When Kate Thorp was diagnosed with metastatic HER2-Positive breast cancer weeks after undergoing a double mastectomy in late 2016, the survivor of late-stage Hodgkin’s Lymphoma knew she had to blaze an unconventional path. Radical chemo as a teenager left her with a heart muscle disease that led to a heart attack in 2012. The Tulsa, Okla.-based commercial real estate broker, 48, also developed a slew of autoimmune diseases post-chemo, including Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

“When I got my scans showing I had metastatic disease in my internal lymph nodes and on my ribs—both inoperable—they said, ‘You have to do radiation. You have to do chemo.’ And I said, ‘No, it will kill me,’” she says. Finally, a seventh oncologist recommended alternative treatment.

In early 2017, Thorp began taking concentrated doses of cannabis oil containing 74% percent of the plant compound THC and 12% CBD. After undergoing additional intensive nutritional therapies during her three-week stay at a Mexican cancer center, Thorp received great news: Her MRI showed no sign of disease. More than two years later, the mom of two—who continues to microdose THC and CBD—remains cancer-free.

Her immune system has also been strengthened thanks to an equally unorthodox dietary journey. Even after Thorp found a benign mass between her armpit and breast in 2009, “No one advised me to change my diet at the time,” she says. “I just kind of muddled through.” Seven years later, her optometrist, of all people, noting her inflamed corneas, asked if she was regularly eating gluten. Thorp said yes—and then saw the light.