Max Gerson (18 October 1881–8 March 1959) was a German physician who developed the Gerson Therapy, an alternative dietary therapy which he claimed could cure cancer and most chronic, degenerative diseases. Gerson described his approach in the book A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases. However, when Gerson's claims were independently evaluated by the National Cancer Institute, it was found that Gerson's records lacked the basic information necessary to systematically evaluate his claims, and the patients who were "cured" by his treatment were also receiving standard, effective medical treatment simultaneously.

The therapy is considered scientifically unsupported and potentially hazardous, and has been blamed for the deaths of patients who substituted it for standard medical care. Gerson was born in 1881 to a Jewish family in Wongrowitz, in the German province of Posen. According to Gerson's grandson and biographer, his choice of career in medicine was influenced by the general anti-Semitism of German science at the time, as science was closed to Jews, but medicine was open.

Gerson's biographer states that Gerson, as a resident physician, suffered from migraine headaches. Gerson altered his diet, eliminating many staples of German cuisine, and eventually claimed that he no longer had headaches. Entering private practice in Bielefeld, Germany, Gerson prescribed his migraine diet to patients.

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