Category Archives: Alternative Cancer Treatment

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy for Cancer – Is It Right for You?

Could Immunotherapy Be Your Miracle Treatment?
Could Immunotherapy Be Your Miracle Treatment?

The concept of using your body’s own resources to fight cancer dates back more than 100 years, but immunotherapy for cancer has recently emerged in the public eye thanks to incredible advancements over the last 10 years. Is this cutting-edge treatment right for you?

Functions of the immune system

Traditional cancer treatments, such as radiation and chemotherapy, have focused on fighting tumors from the “outside.” Immunotherapy is different because it involves boosting your immune system’s ability to attack cancer cells naturally.

Your immune system operates much like an army, with each cell having a specific duty that contributes to the overall function.

• Cells on the “front line” recognize foreign bodies that have entered your system.

• Other cells take on the actual “battle” of attacking and defeating those invaders.

• “Messenger” cells tie everything together by facilitating communications between the cells.

How immunotherapy helps your body fight cancer

Cancer presents a unique challenge for this normally efficient process. Since cancer cells develop from your body’s own cells, the immune system has difficulty recognizing them, which gives these mutated cells a chance to multiply.

Immunotherapy for cancer involves complex interactions, but they generally fall into one of two categories. Some treatments make cancer cells more identifiable to your immune system. Others boost your system’s immune response, which includes actions such as blocking certain factors that enable growth of a tumor.

Our Issels® center has been successfully using immunotherapy for cancer for more than 60 years. Visit our website to read and watch testimonials from patients of all ages who have benefited from our personalized non-toxic treatments.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Survivors, Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy: a Miracle Cure for Many

Let Issels Help You Survive Fighting Cancer!
Let Issels Help You Survive Fighting Cancer!

Chemotherapy and radiation are common forms of treatment for cancer, but they are not always effective. These forms of treatment can also cause unpleasant side effects or long-term effects.

Issels immunotherapy for cancer offers a nontoxic treatment method that is effective and doesn’t cause adverse side effects. Our personalized treatment programs have helped patients completely recover, even from aggressive forms of cancer.

Miracle Cure

While she was in her 40s, Lori Alf battled multiple myeloma, a blood cancer with a grim outlook. With the help of Dr. Carl H. June, Alf underwent an experimental treatment that used her body’s own immune system to fight the cancer cells. As part of this treatment, researchers took white blood cells from Alf’s body and turned them into cells that were able to target and destroy cancer cells.

These white blood cells were combined with a protein known as chimeric antigen receptor to help them recognize myeloma cells. Within two months of undergoing immunotherapy, Alf’s body was free of cancer.

One of the advantages of immunotherapy is that it does not carry the risk of graft-versus-host disease, a condition that can be life-threatening. This occurs when the body rejects transplanted stem cells that come from a donor. Since the cells used in immunotherapy are from the patient, there is no risk of rejection. Researchers believe that immunotherapy can be used to effectively and safely treat more than two dozen cancers.

If you would like more information on the Issels non-toxic immunotherapy for cancer, please contact Issels. We offer care for many different types of cancer.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research, Immuno-Oncology, Immunotherapy

What is Biotherapy Treatment for Cancer?

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It's Time to Stop Cancer!
It’s Time to Stop Cancer!

You may sometimes hear immunotherapy for cancer referred to as biological therapy, or biotherapy for short. The prefix “bio” relates to living organisms, as opposed to “chemo,” which indicates chemicals. Biotherapy makes use of natural, living substances that assist your body’s own immune system in fighting cancer.

Biotherapy vs. chemotherapy

Traditional chemotherapy uses drugs to directly attack cancer cells. The main drawback is that chemo drugs can’t differentiate between cancer cells and healthy cells. As a result, damage to normal cells can result in nausea, fatigue, hair loss and other side effects associated with this type of treatment.

While your immune system does a good job at fighting bacteria and other foreign bodies, it has a hard time identifying and eliminating cancer cells. Biotherapy uses protocols developed from elements of the immune system, such as T-cells, cytokines and NK or natural killer cells, to harness and increase its cancer-fighting power.

How biotherapy affects the immune system

Biotherapy treatments can aid your immune system either directly or indirectly.

  • Direct assistance boosts the immune system’s ability to fight cancer cells by enhancing its power or making diseased cells easier to recognize.
  • Indirect assistance results from stopping or suppressing the process whereby healthy cells are transformed into cancer cells, as well as preventing cancer cells from spreading to other parts of the body.

Issels® is in the forefront of biotherapy cancer treatments

Personalized immunotherapy for cancer used at our Issels® center is based on special testing methods to determine each patient’s specific needs. Visit our website for more information about our individualized non-toxic therapies.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Immunotherapy

Learn More about Immunotherapy a Type of Biotherapy

Harnessing The Body to Fight Cancer
Harnessing The Body to Fight Cancer

Thanks to cutting-edge advances and high-profile recipients like Jimmy Carter, immunotherapy for cancer has been in the spotlight over the last few years. Have you wondered what makes it different from other cancer treatments?

Harnessing your body’s natural resources

Immunotherapy is a form of biotherapy, which means that the treatments use living organisms to fight cancer. It works by giving your body’s immune system a helping hand in targeting and fighting cancer cells.

Cancer cells can trick your immune system by appearing similar enough to healthy cells that they aren’t recognized as a threat. The mutant cells then multiply so rapidly that the immune system can’t react and catch up.

Some immunotherapies work by making cancer cells more visible to your immune system so they can take action. Others work directly with your immune system to boost its response to cancer cells.

Different types of immunotherapy

  • Monoclonal antibodies are used for treatment called targeted therapy. They mark cancer cells to make them more easily recognizable to your immune system.
  • Cytokines are naturally created proteins that have a significant role in normal immune responses and the immune system’s ability to seek out and fight cancer.
  • Vaccines are normally thought of as preventive treatments, but cancer vaccines play an active role in strengthening the immune response.

Using state-of-the-art immunotherapy treatments

Our Issels® center uses these forms and other types of immunotherapy for cancer based on your own individual needs. Contact us for more information about our non-toxic treatment protocols.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research, Immunotherapy

What Every Person Should Know About Melanoma

Fighting Melanoma
Fighting Melanoma

The word “cancer” is something everyone dreads hearing, but in the case of a type of cancer known as melanoma, it can feel like a death sentence. Here at Issels®, we have had great success in treating our patients with immunotherapy; even those who have received late diagnoses and feel like they’ve lost hope. Even so, there are some things you should be aware of about melanoma and how it can progress.

Melanoma is a type of skin cancer, and most of the time, patients are the first ones to detect that there is something abnormal about their skin. As you can probably guess, there are different types of melanomas, but the most serious is called melanoma IQ. This type of cancer can metastasize and spread to various parts of the body, including to internal organs.

In order to identify a case of melanoma, doctors use the ABCDE method prior to doing a biopsy. They check for:

A – Asymmetry

B – Border irregularity

C – Colors that change throughout a mole

D – Diameter that’s larger than 6mm

E – Evolving over time

These indicators are enough to cause most physicians to seek out a biopsy.

Prevention is always the answer when it comes to any type of cancer. Immunotherapy for cancer offers us much hope, but it’s important to know your risk factors so that you can detect it early on. For example, if you are Caucasian, and you have light skin, hair and eyes, you are at an increased risk. You’re also at risk if you spend a lot of time in the sun. Issels® can help you with immunotherapy for cancer.

Find out more about the Issels cancer treatment programs using cutting-edge immunotherapy programs today.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Cancer Survivors, Living with Cancer

What Office Managers Need to Know About Staff with Cancer

Information For Managers Dealing With Cancer Patients
Information For Managers Dealing With Cancer Patients

As treatments such as immunotherapy for cancer become more effective, the number of survivors continues to increase. If you are an office manager, chances are you will have an employee dealing with a cancer diagnosis at least once during your tenure.

Maintaining a professional but supportive workplace environment can be a fine line to walk. Some elements are covered in company policies, but many are less defined. Here are some tips to help you strike a balance between business and personal needs.

Focus on the employee

When you sit down for the initial conversation with your employee, concentrate on their needs first.

  • Find a private location without distractions.
  • Let your employee do most of the talking while you listen carefully. This approach preserves their privacy and allows them to establish a comfort level.
  • Provide encouragement, but avoid agreeing or disagreeing with anything they say.
  • Finish with a summary of the main points to make sure you are both on the same page.

Respect their privacy

Some people are open about their health status while others prefer to limit how much they make public. Find out where your employee stands and respect their wishes either way.

Help them understand their options

Information about medical leave, health insurance and other human resource issues can be difficult to navigate. Help your employee understand the options or recruit someone who can.

At Issels®, our immunotherapy for cancer is aimed at allowing patients to resume and maintain their normal activities with as little interruption as possible. Visit our website for more information about our innovative treatments, including cancer vaccines and gene-targeted therapies.