A naturopath who claims her treatments can halt cancer progression has been banned from calling herself an “integrative oncologist” after a court ruled it implied she was a medical specialist.

Gold Coast naturopath Manuela Malaguti had described herself as a “specialist in integrative oncology” on Facebook, LinkedIn, her website material and other advertisements about her practice.

But last week, the District Court of Queensland dismissed her appeal against an earlier Magistrates Court ruling which barred her from using the term.

Judge David Kent QC agreed with the magistrate’s original decision that “a consumer without extensive knowledge in the area of medical oncology would be encouraged by the advertisements … to expect that they would be dealing with a registered health practitioner”.