Experts dismiss claims that pineapple juice can cure blood cancer

Published on September 16, 2025 at 10:50
3 min read
By AFP Thailand

Health experts told AFP no scientific evidence backs a claim shared thousands of times on Facebook that drinking sunlight-exposed pineapple juice for a month can cure blood cancer. The herbal remedy has no proven effect, and doctors warn delayed treatment could make the disease fatal.

"Drinking pineapple juice can cure blood cancer," reads the Burmese-language Facebook post published September 1, 2025.

"Peel five ripe pineapples, then extract the juice. Pour the juice into clean, wide-mouthed glass bottles. Keep them exposed to sunlight for about four days".

"Drink the juice three times a day, one glass per serving. Continue this regimen for about a month to potentially eliminate the illnesses completely".

The post includes an image of someone pouring a pitcher filled with yellow liquid into a glass with a pineapple behind it. The superimposed text repeats the claim.

Screenshot of a Facebook post taken September 12, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

Similar posts spread elsewhere on Facebook among users based in Myanmar.

Blood cancer originates from a DNA mutation resulting in the excessive and abnormal production of blood cells (archived links here and here).

Health experts warn drinking pineapple juice does not cure the potentially life-threatening disease.

"There is no scientific evidence that drinking pineapple juice has any effect on leukaemia or blood cancers," said Dr Don S Dizon, a professor specialising in cancer research at Tufts University in the US state of Massachusetts, on September 8 (archived links here and here).

According to Yale Medicine, treatment of blood cancer can vary from active conservative therapy to standard interventions such as immunotherapies, chemotherapies and targeted agents (archived link).

Lab studies suggest bromelain, an enzyme in pineapple, has some anticancer properties. However, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center warns these effects "have not been studied in humans" (archived here and here).

While drinking pineapple juice is not harmful by itself, Dizon said any resulting delay in treatment could lead to terminal cancer.

Dr Nurul Aidah Abdul Halim, a haematologist at Singapore General Hospital, told AFP on September 12 that since blood cancer "can be life-threatening," it is "crucial for patients to take their prescribed medications" (archived link).

Caroline Geraghty, senior specialist information nurse at Cancer Research UK, told AFP on September 9 that "before trying alternative remedies, it's always important to consult your cancer doctor, (general practitioner) or specialist nurses."

AFP has previously fact-checked claims about other herbal remedies here, here and here.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail