Category Archives: Alternative Cancer Treatment

Alternative Cancer Treatment

Types of Prostate Cancer

Prostate Cancer
Prostate Cancer

The most common cancer in American men with the exception of skin cancer, 1 in 7 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime. Though most men with prostate cancer will not die from it, it can be a serious disease.

Acinar Adenocarcinoma is the most common form of prostate cancer
Acinar adenocarcinoma begins in the gland cells in the prostate, and comprise more than 90 percent of prostate cancers, including atrophic, foamy, colloid and signet ring carcinoma. All subtypes of acinar adenocarcinoma are treated in the same fashion. Though the majority of these cancers grow slowly, some can grow more quickly.

Other rare forms of prostate cancer, comprising the remaining 10 percent include:

  • Ductal adenocarcinoma
    Originates in the cells lining the ducts (tubes) of the prostate gland. Spreads more quickly than acinar adenocarcinoma. Some men have advanced cases when diagnosed.
  • Transitional cell (urothelial cancer)
    Begins in the cells lining the urethra, the tube for carrying urine outside the body. Typically begins in the bladder and spreads to the prostate.
  • Squamous cell cancer
    Arises from the flat cells covering the prostate. Also spreads more quickly than adenocarcinoma, making advanced cases common.
  • Carcinoid of the prostate
    Starting from cells of the neuroendocrine system, specialized nerve and gland cells, these tumors are rare and slow-growing.
  • Small cell cancer
    A type of neuroendocrine tumor comprised of small, round cells. Does not raise PSA, so it is difficult to detect early.
  • Sarcoma and sarcomatoid cancer
    A mixture of sarcoma and adenocarcinoma cells and originating from muscle cells, this cancer, including leiomyosarcoma, can grow quite quickly.

Suffering from prostate cancer? Contact Issels www.issels.com  today to learn more about our natural cancer treatment approach with immunotherapy.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Living with Cancer

Living with Cancer – Beneficial Supplements for Living with Cancer

Healthy Living With Cancer
Healthy Living With Cancer

Conventional cancer treatments, while capable of saving people’s lives, can also zap the human body of crucial vitamins and minerals.  When patients go through chemotherapy and radiation, for example, they may feel lethargic, have brittle hair and nails, and find that they cannot fight off colds and infections very well.

Rather than take chances on their bodies being able to resist viruses and bacteria or submit to feeling tired and physically drained until their treatments are done, most may be able to reclaim their energy and immune support by taking supplements in conjunction with alternative or conventional cancer treatments.

Before a patient takes any vitamins or supplements, they should consult their doctors to make sure that any product that they take will not interfere with their treatment.  However, studies have noted that antioxidants, particularly those that contain Vitamins A, C, and E are effective in fighting free radicals in the body and repairing some of the damage that these free radicals have inflicted on a person’s DNA.

Likewise, chemotherapy and radiation are well known to deplete a person’s iron level and leave that individual feeling lethargic and sick.  People whose blood iron levels are found to be very low during cancer treatment may be advised to take an iron supplement or a multi-vitamin that contains 100 percent of the daily recommended dose of iron. They should take their iron supplement with fruit juice, as the Vitamin C in juice will bind with the iron in the supplement and help transmit it throughout one’s body better.

People who go through cancer treatments look forward to recovering from their illness.  When they feel drained of energy, have low blood iron, or have other signs of nutritional deficiencies like brittle hair and nails, they may recoup some of their former physical characteristics by taking a supplement.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Immunotherapy, News

New Advances in Immunotherapy Make the News

In The News
In The News

New Advances in Immunotherapy Treatment for Cancer Targeted immunotherapy for cancer Traditional treatments for cancer take a slash ‘n burn approach, poisoning the entire body in hopes of killing off the cancer cells faster than the healthy cells. Targeted therapies that seek out and kill cancer cells while sparing all others have long been the dream of cancer researchers. Some progress towards targeted therapies has been made. For example, Herceptin and Glivec have given new hope to patients with breast cancer and leukemia.

Immunotherapy is the New “Silver Bullet” for Cancer

Using the immune system to kill cancer cells has always seemed to be a good idea. After all, the immune system’s entire purpose is to seek out diseased cells and destroy them while sparing the healthy cells. What better tool to wipe out cancer cells? Of course this raised the question of why the immune system doesn’t naturally seek out and destroy cancer cells.

The discovery of how some cancer cells manage to stop the immune system from killing them opened up a whole new way to approach cancer treatments. Many cancer cells express a protein called PD-L1 on their surfaces. When T cells (part of the immune system) attempt to kill the abnormal cancer cells the PD-L1 binds to PD-1 on the surface of the T cells. This stops the T cells from attacking the cancer cells.

Nivolumab

A drug called Nivolumab that blocks the interaction of PD-1 with tumor-expressed PD-L1 is the first of the drugs targeting this pathway to make it to the market. In clinical trials Nivolumab has extended the lifespan of patients with advanced melanoma. Without Nivolumab most patients with advanced melanoma don’t survive for a year after diagnosis but with Nivolumab 63% were alive a year later, and even more remarkable 43% were alive two years later.

Nivolumab is only the first of many treatments that will “unmask” tumor cells to the immune system, allowing the immune system to do what it does best- target and kill diseased cells. Other companies have drugs in development targeting the PD-1 pathway.

Immune system unmasking drugs will join cancer vaccines and other therapies intended to use the immune system to fight cancer naturally. Issels Integrative Oncology has been offering individualized immunotherapy for over 60 years to cancer victims.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Nanotech Methods May Be the Future of Cancer Treatment

Cancer Bomb
Cancer Bomb

At Rice University they are blowing up cancer cells with nanoparticle “bombs.” Like integrative immunotherapy, the new cancer-fighting technique kills cancer cells without harming surrounding healthy cells. Experimental trials have been so successful destroying aggressive and resistant cancer cells, particularly in the head and neck areas, that human trials are expected to begin in the near future.

Cancer Bombs

Rice cellular biologist Dmitri Lapolko who developed the new treatment calls it quadrapeutics for the four techniques – nanoparticles, laser, drugs and radiation — used in this revolutionary new cancer treatment. Here’s how it works (Click here to watch a video.):

1. Colloidal gold nanoparticles filled with a small dose of chemotherapy drugs are injected into the body at the tumor site.

2. The nanoparticles are detonated with a near-infrared laser. The gold magnifies the laser’s effect which allows the use of very small doses of radiation.

3. As the laser hits the nanoparticles, they burst. The energy expansion creates a momentary bubble that blows up and destroys surrounding cancer cells, much like the shock wave from a bomb.

4. Chemotherapy drugs released when the nanoparticles explode deliver a second deadly payload to any remaining cancer cells in the area. With their cell walls already damaged by the nanoparticle explosion, remaining cells are quickly penetrated by the chemo drugs which are able to directly attack the cytoplasm at the cells’ heart, destroying them.

Cell Therapy

If human trials are successful, Lapolko believes quadrapeutics could be valuable in addressing complex tumors intertwined with critical organs. Increasingly the fight against cancer is being conducted on the cellular battlefield. Visit our website for information about cell therapy in cancer treatments.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Blood Samples Being Used to Personalize Breast Cancer Treatment

Alternative Cancer Treatment
Alternative Cancer Treatment

Boston scientists are attempting to use blood samples to personalize breast cancer treatment for women with rare forms of the disease. After filtering tumor cells from patient blood samples, researchers have been studying how the cells grow and begun to experiment with possible solutions for halting cell growth. The new technique has the potential to allow “real time monitoring” of tumor changes and usher in a new era of individually designed cancer treatments.

“Tumors change, and from the time that a woman is diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer that needs to be treated to the time that multiple treatments have worked and stop working, the tumors have evolved,” Dr. Daniel Haber of Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center recently told the Boston Globe.

Real Time Monitoring

The new technique would allow oncologists to monitor tumor development and treatment resistance in real time and make treatment adjustments more quickly, hopefully preventing the spread of cancer and hastening the administration of more effective targeted therapies. The ability to track such changes through blood tests could also spare breast cancer patients the trauma of multiple invasive biopsies.

When Cancer Cells Circulate

The circulation of cancer cells in the blood stream is considered a strong indicator that cancer is spreading beyond the original tumor site. Cancer cell circulation is also believed to be a primary mechanism for metastasis. The ability to track the real time emergence of cancer cell mutations through blood samples is still a work in progress. While intriguing, researchers were only able to culture cancer cells in one-sixth of the blood samples.

Visit our website to learn about Issels personalized treatment programs for breast and other cancers.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Living with Cancer

Quality of Life Benefits Drive Mainstream Adoption of Alternative Cancer Treatments

Acupuncture
Acupuncture

In what many consider to be a revolutionary change in traditional medical thinking, alternative cancer treatments are going mainstream. With a growing number of studies and mounting clinical evidence pointing to the quality of life benefits of many alternative treatments, practitioners of Western medicine have begun adopting alternative cancer therapies.

“Rebirth” of Alternative Cancer Therapies

Once given short shrift by traditional oncologists, acupuncture, autohemotherapy, massage therapy, hyperthermia, phytotherapy and a lengthy list of beneficial alternative cancer therapies are undergoing “rebirth” as the traditional cancer community recognizes their quality of life benefits in the light of new research revealing the importance of immunotherapy in fighting cancer.

Alternative treatments are not new, but have been used to battle disease or ease its symptoms for thousands of years, as these examples indicate:

  • Acupuncture has been an accepted and respected treatment procedure in traditional Chinese medicine since ancient times.
  •  The use of herbal medicine, or phytotherapy, dates back to man’s earliest attempts to treat disease and has historical significance in nearly every human culture.
  •  The therapeutic use of massage therapy also has its roots in antiquity. The Greek physician Hippocrates, considered to be the Father of Medicine, wrote about the therapeutic benefits of “rubbing” in the 5th century B.C.

Everything Old Is New Again

What is “new” in Western medical circles is recognition of the validity of these ancient therapies and their ability to enhance cancer treatment and mitigate the pain and side effects of traditional cancer treatments.

For more than 60 years, Issels Integrative Oncology has incorporated beneficial alternative cancer therapies into our personalized immunobiologic core treatment for cancer as part of our comprehensive program of integrative immunotherapy.