All posts by Chris

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Immunotherapy, Immunotherapy for Cancer

Some Immunotherapy Drugs May Cause Heart Damage But There Is the Issels Safe Alternative

New Immunotherapy Drugs

New immunotherapy drugs on the market have shown tremendous benefits in battling cancer, but a potentially serious side effect has come to light recently. Some of these drugs, especially when used in combination, may cause heart damage.

Putting the Immune System in Overdrive

In November 2016 the New England Journal of Medicine published a report from a team of experts led by Dr. Javid Moslehi of Vanderbilt University. It involved two melanoma patients who died two weeks after their initial doses of Opdivo and Yervoy, manufactured by pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Opdivo and Yervoy are part of the class of drugs known as checkpoint inhibitors that boost the immune system’s ability to fight cancer cells. In some rare cases, it appears that the immune system also begins attacking the heart and other muscles.

Patient safety records at Bristol-Myers revealed that 18 patients out of 20,594 people receiving one or both drugs had experienced heart inflammation (for a rate of 0.09 percent). The rate increased for patients using both drugs, but it was still less than one percent.

Doctors are Cautious but Optimistic

According to Dr. Jeffrey Sosman of Chicago’s Northwestern University, who treated both patients in the report, overstimulation of the immune system was a known possibility. Many doctors believe drug combos are still the best option for effective treatment, but they are stressing that patients need to be informed of the risk and monitored closely.

Issels® Has Decades of Experience with Non-Toxic, Safe Immunotherapy for Cancer

Our clinic’s namesake, renowned cancer specialist Dr. Josef Issels, pioneered integrative methods of immunotherapy for cancer dating back to the mid-20th century. Contact us for more information about our safe non-toxic immunotherapy and cancer vaccines.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Brain Tumor’s Greed for Cholesterol May Create a Treatment Opportunity

A Unique Perspective
Fight Brain Cancer With Cholesterol

When it comes to fitness and nutrition, cholesterol has become a bad word. But a team of researchers has discovered that the substance may turn out to be a surprising hero in the fight against cancer.

Brain Cancer Treatment Hits a Dead End

Details of the study, conducted jointly by Ludwig Cancer Research San Diego and Scripps, were published last fall in Cancer Cell. The project involved glioblastoma (GBM), an aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer.

The scientific community had reached an impasse in the treatment of GBM. Although the cancer cells had been extensively studied, targeted therapies based on these analyses proved ineffective and served only to increase the tumor’s drug resistance.

Hope Comes from an Unlikely Source

The research team found clues in the way brain cells process cholesterol. The brain actually manufactures its own cholesterol, and when the cells have enough a receptor is activated that starts releasing the excess.

In contrast, GBM cells crave large amounts of cholesterol but do not manufacture it. Their shut-off receptor remains inactive, allowing them to “steal” cholesterol from normal cells and use it to grow.

Researchers implanted GBM tumors from humans into mice and treated them with a drug that triggers the shut-off receptor. As a result, many of the cancer cells were destroyed, causing significant shrinkage in the tumors and extending the lives of the affected mice.

Immunotherapy for Cancer: Treatment for All Forms of Tumors

Our non-toxic, personally developed immunotherapy for cancer programs at Issels® have helped patients with all forms of cancer, from melanoma and lymphoma to breast and lung cancer. Contact us for more information.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Immunotherapy for Cancer

Study Finds that Older Lung Cancer Patients May Still Benefit from Surgery

Lung Cancer
Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the second most common form of cancer in both men and women, and nearly all the patients are over the age of 45. Despite the fact that the average age of diagnosis is 70, cancer surgery is proving to be a viable treatment option that can extend the lives of these patients.

Is Surgery Appropriate for Older Patients?

The general opinion, even among healthcare professionals, is that surgery is too hard on the aging bodies of older patients to be considered as a solution for lung cancer. Treatment then focuses on controlling the symptoms rather than attempting curative solutions.

Evaluating Surgical Treatment for Lung Cancer

In October 2016 the Journal of Clinical Oncology published a study headed up by Dr. Prasad Adusumilli, a thoracic surgeon at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Participants included more than 2,000 patients diagnosed with Stage 1 non-small cell lung cancer. Approximately 70 percent of the subjects were 65 or older.

After these patients had surgery to remove the tumors, the group experienced a remarkable track record of success. The first year follow-up showed that patient deaths to that point were most often due to causes other than lung cancer. Even more encouraging news was that after five years nearly 90 percent of the patients were alive and cancer-free.

Instead of Surgery Consider Immunotherapy for Cancer

At Issels®, our personally tailored immunotherapy for cancer treatments are designed to boost your body’s natural defenses against the disease. Contact us to learn more about state-of-the-art non-surgical programs such as cancer vaccines and cell therapies prepared from your own immune cells.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Immunotherapy, Immunotherapy for Cancer

Big Pharma’s Specialized T Cell Treatment May Be Too Toxic for Some Patients

Using the Body to Fight Cancer
T Cell Engineering

CAR-T is a remarkable new immunotherapy for cancer treatment that has been described as “heroic medicine” for patients who have exhausted all other resources. As Big Pharma begins taking steps toward bringing CAR-T to the market, certain toxic side effects have given some investors pause.

Pros and Cons of CAR-T

Your immune system includes T cells, which are a subtype of white blood cells. CAR-T involves harvesting a patient’s T cells, engineering them to recognize cancer then returning them to the patient’s system where they are now better equipped to fight cancer cells.

So far CAR-T has had particular success against leukemia and lymphoma, with one study resulting in leukemia completely disappearing from 90 percent of the participants. The bad news is that some test subjects have developed serious side effects such as cytokine release syndrome, which can result in organ failure.

The Search for a Safer Treatment

While experts believe the dramatically positive results greatly outweigh the potentially negative ones, researchers are at work exploring ways to make CAR-T safer for cancer patients. One promising approach is standardization of T cell doses by maintaining specific proportions.

Some researchers use a so-called “suicide switch,” which is a drug that causes T cells to self-destruct in the presence of high toxicity levels. Doses of the activation drug can be adjusted so it reduces toxic effects but leaves some T cells intact.

The Non-Toxic Alternative: State-of-the-Art Immunotherapy for Cancer at Issels®

While immunotherapy is a hot buzzword in the medical community, Issels® has been a leader in the field for decades. Contact us to learn more about the success of our personally-tailored non-toxic immunotherapy for cancer treatment programs.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Living with Cancer

Cancer May Be Carried in Your DNA – Should Testing Be Offered?

Cancer Can Be Caused at The DNA Level

Lifestyle choices, such as smoking and poor diet, can affect your chances of developing cancer, but some people carry a high risk for the disease

in their DNA. The medical community is currently debating whether widespread genetic testing will do more harm than good.

Would Lower-Cost Tests Mean Greater Accessibility?

BRCA-related cancers occur when the genes that produce tumor-preventing proteins mutate to the point where they lose that ability. These genetic changes result in higher risk of breast, prostate, ovarian and pancreatic cancers as well as melanoma.

Testing can normally run into thousands of dollars, making it generally available only via insurance coverage to individuals with a strong family history of cancer. But biotech companies have come up with viable tests that cost less than $500.

When Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing

Experts such as Mary-Claire King, the award-winning geneticist who originally identified the BRCA1 gene, think that the new testing methods should be considered routine like Pap smears and mammograms. Others are not convinced.

Why is caution needed with the new genetic testing?

• Genetics is not a cut-and-dried specialty, and not all variations can be interpreted correctly.

• Some companies sell these tests directly to consumers without clear information about limitations and risks.

At this point, knowing your family history is still the best indicator of a possible genetic link to cancer.

Genomic Testing and Immunotherapy for Cancer

At Issels®, our immunotherapy for cancer treatments are personally developed to allow for individual factors such as genetic predisposition and lifestyle. Visit our website to learn more about our state-of-the-art protocols such as cancer vaccines and NK cells.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Breast Cancer, Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research, Cancer Survivors, Immunotherapy, Immunotherapy for Cancer, News

Higher Vitamin D Levels May Boost Breast Cancer Survival

Higher Vitamin D Levels May Boost Breast Cancer Survival
Higher Vitamin D Levels May Boost Breast Cancer Survival

Vitamin D has long been known as an essential nutrient that aids your bones with calcium absorption. A recent study shows that there may also be a link between vitamin D levels and surviving breast cancer.

Examining the Link between Vitamin D and Breast Cancer Survival

The study, performed by a research team from the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, began in 2006 with a group of women from California who had been diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. Participants were divided into three sub-groups based on blood levels of a particular vitamin D marker.

Women with more advanced cancers tended to have low levels of the marker. Over an average of seven years of follow-up, 100 of these women died compared to 76 women with high levels. There were approximately 1,600 women total involved in the study.

In addition, women with the highest vitamin D levels were 28 percent less likely to die of any cause, once factors such as tumor characteristics were accounted for. This link was the strongest among pre-menopausal women.

What Does This Mean for the Future?

According to lead author Song Yao, overall results showed “30 percent reduction of all-cause mortality” linked to vitamin D levels at the time of diagnosis. While the study supports previous research linking vitamin D with breast cancer survival, Yao said a randomized controlled trial would be needed to determine a direct cause-and-effect.

Immunotherapy for Cancer: Going Beyond Traditional Treatments

Immunotherapy for cancer has been gaining a lot of attention recently, but at Issels® we have a decades-long history of using these state-of-the-art methods successfully. Contact us for more information.