Category Archives: Cancer Research

Our Patient Testimonials Give an Insiders’ View of Our Cancer Treatments

Get The Treatment You Need with Us!
Get The Treatment You Need with Us!

When it comes to cancer treatment at Issels®, no one can speak about it more eloquently than our patients. Here’s what they have to say in their testimonials about our integrative immunotherapy programs.

In Our Patients’ Own Words: The Issels® Difference

  • Gerhard Uhlemann was diagnosed with an epipharynx tumor of the head and neck. As he explains, “I was 12 years old and I am still thankful that Dr. Issels saved my life. Back then the University Clinic gave me two weeks to live.” After treatment, Uhlemann remained cancer-free for more than 30 years.
  • At the age of six, Emma Banks was diagnosed with a Wilms tumor. Two years after a nephrectomy of her left kidney, Emma experienced a relapse with two tumors in her left lung. Emma’s mother Susan relates that, thanks to treatment at Issels®, her daughter “has been in remission for almost nine years now without any standard treatment.”
  • When Kenneth Scoones lost his lymph nodes to melanoma, he was told the cancer had metastasized to his lungs and his life expectancy was one year at most. After four weeks at Issels®, a CT scan revealed that the metastases had disappeared. Scoones states that from his arrival, “The doctors, nurses, all the staff responded, showed care and affection, and compassion – everything that was needed for a patient with this sort of disease.”

Immunotherapy: Going Beyond Standard Cancer Treatment

Our innovative immunotherapy methods boost the natural power of your body’s own immune system. Contact us to learn more about cancer vaccines, NK cells and other non-toxic cancer treatments at Issels®.

High Doses of Vitamin C May Boost Cancer Treatment Results

Vitamin C Intensive Therapy for Cancer
Vitamin C Intensive Therapy for Cancer

Back in the 1970s, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Linus Pauling suggested the benefits of vitamin C as a part of cancer treatment. Recent studies have shown further evidence that supports Pauling’s findings.

Can Vitamin C Make Cancer Treatment More Effective?

Scientists at the University of Iowa conducted the first phase of a series of trials to investigate the results of combining high-dose vitamin C with traditional chemotherapy and radiation. The study monitors effects on patients’ lifespan and quality of life.

Subjects included 11 patients diagnosed with brain cancer. In addition to their standard treatments, each one received 800 to 1,000 times the recommended daily dose of vitamin C. Larger doses are required because the nutrient has a half-life of only two hours inside the body.

The patients experienced only minor episodes of side effects such as dry mouth. More importantly, they exceeded the average survival time of patients receiving conventional treatment alone by four to six months.

How Vitamin C Affects Cancer Cells

A cancer cell’s damaged metabolism results in abnormally high levels of redox active iron molecules, which join with vitamin C to create hydrogen peroxide along with hydrogen peroxide-related free radicals. Scientists hypothesize that this result weakens cancer cells, making them more susceptible to treatment and hastening their destruction.

Issels® and Nutritional Immunotherapy

At Issels®, we believe that maximizing the power of your own immune system is the key to successful cancer treatment. Our nutritional immunotherapy program is aimed at supporting immune mechanisms and improving the functions of cells, tissues and organs.

Contact us today to learn more about why Issels® is a leader in non-toxic immunotherapy cancer treatment.

 

Urine “Sniff Test” May Allow Doctors to Bypass a Prostate Biopsy

The Cancer Sniff Test May Help With Early Treatment
The Cancer Sniff Test May Bypass Prostate Biopsy

Urine samples can be used to detect a wide range of conditions such as diabetes, pregnancy and drug abuse. Researchers are now working on developing a urine “sniff test” that can help reduce the number of unnecessary prostate cancer biopsies.

Diagnosing Prostate Cancer

Among men in the United States, cases of prostate cancer are second only to skin cancer. Approximately one in seven men will require cancer treatment for the disease at some point in their lifetime.

One of the signs of prostate cancer is an elevated blood level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Unfortunately, unrelated conditions can also cause high PSA levels, so a biopsy is necessary for a specific diagnosis.

The Nose Knows

A study showed that dogs could smell the presence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the urine of men with prostate cancer at 98 percent accuracy, prompting a team at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis to investigate further.

After collecting urine samples from 100 men undergoing prostate biopsies and neutralizing the pH to prevent degradation, the team discovered that a particular set of VOCs was present in 90 percent of the men who were diagnosed with prostate cancer but absent in the men who were cancer-free.

The researchers plan to validate their findings with a large-scale study and comparison to the results with dogs. If all goes well, they project that a version of the sniff test will be available for clinical use within a few years.

Personalized Cancer Treatment at Issels®

Our individually developed immunotherapy programs are based on special testing to identify your particular needs. Contact us for more information.

Statistically, Cancer Death Rates Continue to Decline

There Is Hope! Studies Have Shown Cancer Survival Rates are Going Up!
There Is Hope! Studies Have Shown Cancer Survival Rates are Going Up!

For decades, scientists have been working non-stop to develop more effective cancer treatment methods. According to a recent report, the efforts seem to be paying off in declining cancer death rates.

Reduced Death Rates for Most Types of Cancer

The Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer is the product of a collaboration between a number of organizations, including the American Cancer Society. According to this year’s report, death rates have decreased for 11 of the 16 most common cancers in males and 13 of the 18 most common cancers in women.

Among the types of cancer seeing decreases are lung, colorectal, prostate, and female breast. Overall rates of new cancers were also lower for men, but stabilized for women.

Positive News on Cancer Survival Rates

Dr. Ahmedin Jamal of the American Cancer Society was the lead author of the report. He stated that death rates are the conventional standard for measuring progress, but survival rates are also a significant yardstick. Data on cancer survival rates was included in the report for the first time since 2004.

News on cancer survival rates was encouraging, with five-year survival rates significantly higher for all but cervical and uterine cancer. The report concluded with a call for more efforts and resources to focus on identifying major risk factors for more common types of cancer, such as colorectal and prostate.

Issels®: Playing a Major Role in Cancer Treatment

At Issels®, we have helped patients suffering from all forms of cancer achieve long-term remission. Contact us to learn more about our immunotherapy for cancer treatment programs.

Tumor Treating Fields (TTF) Emerge as a New Cancer Treatment

New Advances Are Being Made in Cancer Treatment
New Advances Are Being Made in Cancer Treatment Using TTFields

Brain cancer is one of the more difficult forms to treat, with the last advancement dating back more than 10 years. Today scientists are excited about the potential of tumor-treating fields (TTFields) as a means of “shocking” cancer cells.

Putting a “Charge” into Cancer

TTFields were first approved as a cancer treatment by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2011. The method of sending mild electrical fields through the scalp was originally used to treat glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer that carries a two-year survival rate of approximately 30 percent.

NovoCure’s device, Optune, is a patient-controlled system that uses adhesive patches to deliver low-electric fields with a frequency of 200 kHz. The fields pulse through the skin, where they are thought to block the division of cancer cells.

TTFields in Action

There have been several subsequent trials of Optune that have generated positive results, but the most recent trial has been described as “landmark.” Neurologist Roger Stupp of Northwestern University led a group of researchers in a five-year study of patients newly diagnosed with glioblastoma.

Out of 695 participants, one-third were treated with oral chemotherapy alone while the other two-thirds had the oral treatment coupled with the Optune device. The two-, three-, four- and five-year survival rates were all significantly higher for the group that received the combination treatment.

Issels®: The Leader in State-of-the-Art Cancer Treatment

We’ve seen a significant number of patients achieve long-term remission after receiving our integrative immunotherapy programs. Contact us today to learn how Issels® has been ahead of the industry in the use of individually-developed immunotherapy protocols for cancer treatment.

The Cost of Some New Cancer Drugs Spiral Out of Reach for Some Patients

The Cost of Some Medications Is Rising
The Cost of Some Medications Is Rising

The last few years have brought exciting advances in immunotherapy for cancer, but innovation has come at a price … literally. Skyrocketing costs for cancer drugs are making them inaccessible for many who would benefit the most.

Cancer Drugs: The Price of Success

During the 10-year period between 2005 and 2015, Big Pharma’s pipeline of cancer drugs increased by 63 percent, with several reaching the market. As a result, the global market is projected to grow from $16.9 billion in 2015 to an astounding $75.8 billion in 2022.

But while competition generally serves to drive prices down, that’s not happening with the new cancer drugs. Factors such as market exclusivity, insurance plan structures and lack of head-to-head comparison studies combine to keep prices high.

One example is checkpoint inhibitors, which release the systemic “brakes” preventing the immune system from recognizing and attacking cancer cells. Bristol, Merck, Roche and Pfizer all have checkpoint inhibitors on the market, but each has an annual price tag approaching $150,000.

What’s the Answer?

Experts see no evidence that pharmaceutical companies, driven by the current free rein on pricing, are exploring more cost-effective solutions. President Donald Trump and lawmakers from both parties are prioritizing a search for methods to restrain spiraling cancer drug costs, ranging from more price negotiation to faster approval.

Issels® Leads the Field in Immunotherapy for Cancer

While the medical community and lawmakers grapple with the finances of immunotherapy for cancer, we have been successfully treating patients with individually developed non-toxic protocols for years. Contact us today to learn more about cancer vaccines, NK cells and other immunotherapy programs at Issels®.