Category Archives: Cancer Research

Cancer Research, Cancer Treatment, News, Uncategorized

Testosterone Treatment May Prevent Loss of Body Mass and Muscle Atrophy During Cancer Treatment

Testosterone Treatment May Prevent Loss of Body Mass and Muscle Atrophy During Cancer Treatment
Testosterone Treatment May Prevent Loss of Body Mass and Muscle Atrophy During Cancer Treatment

Testosterone is a naturally produced hormone associated with maintenance of muscle mass and strength. Scientists are now studying the potential of using testosterone to combat muscle atrophy that may occur during immunotherapy for cancer and other treatments.

Cachexia: A Major Side Effect of Cancer

About half of all cancer patients experience a condition known as cachexia. Characterized by loss of body mass, weakness and fatigue, cachexia is serious enough to be instrumental in 22 percent of cancer deaths.

One of the problems is that scientists have little information about the causes of cachexia. As a result, there are almost no options to manage this condition in cancer patients. Nutritional treatments can lessen fatigue, but can’t counteract muscle loss.

Can Hormone Therapy Fight Muscle Loss and Fatigue?

Armed with the knowledge that testosterone builds muscle in healthy people, a research team at the University of Texas in Galveston set out to see if the same would hold true with cancer patients. The trial group included individuals diagnosed with a form of skin cancer called squamous cell carcinoma.

While undergoing chemotherapy, radiation or both, patients received a seven-week course of either testosterone or a placebo. Testosterone recipients maintained total body mass while increasing lean body mass by 3.2 percent.

The team’s next step is to analyze muscle proteins and determine how cancer affects them. Their eventual goal is to prevent cachexia from affecting cancer patients’ quality of life.

Issels®: The Leader in Immunotherapy for Cancer

At Issels®, our non-toxic immunotherapy for cancer programs don’t carry the risk of side effects found in traditional treatments. Visit our website for more information.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research, Cancer Treatment, Immunotherapy, Immunotherapy for Cancer, News, Uncategorized

Innovative Research Aims to Snatch Cancer Cells by Magnetism and Nanoparticles

Innovative Research Aims to Snatch Cancer Cells by Magnetism and Nanoparticles
Innovative Research Aims to Snatch Cancer Cells by Magnetism and Nanoparticles

The more precise diagnostic methods are, the more effective immunotherapy for cancer can be. In a case of “opposites attract,” scientists recently took a giant step toward improved diagnostics with the principles of magnetism.

Putting a “Charge” in Cancer Cells

Liquid biopsy is a cancer screening technique in which blood is drawn from a patient and tested for circulating tumor cells, or CTCs. Unfortunately, CTCs are so few and far between that the blood sample may be completely free of them, resulting in a false diagnosis.

In a study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, a team of researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine tested a group of pigs with CTCs in their bloodstream.

– The CTCs were first tagged with a nanoparticle containing magnetic properties.

– In the next step, a small wire was inserted near the pig’s ear in a vein that is comparable to the ones in a human arm.

– As the tagged tumor cells drifted by, the magnetic pull caused them to stick to the wire, which was then removed from the vein.

What’s Next?

Not only did the magnetic method detect 10 to 80 times more CTCs than a typical liquid biopsy, it found 500 to 5,000 more tumor cells than an earlier wire-based model. Dr. Sanjiv Sam Gambhir of Stanford expressed hope that the wire device could have applications for cancer treatment as well as diagnosis.

Thorough and Non-Invasive Diagnostic Procedures at Issels®

Our extensive diagnostic procedures let us create a personalized immunotherapy for cancer program that incorporates a number of complementary methods to treat the tumor along with its environment. Contact us for more information.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Cancer Treatment, Stage Four Cancer Treatment, Uncategorized

Gas Embolotherapy Combined with Ultrasound May Block Cancer Tumor’s Blood Supply

New Cancer Treatments Are Being Studied Worldwide
New Cancer Treatments Are Being Studied Worldwide

Scientists are constantly searching for methods of cancer treatment that will kill tumor cells without affecting healthy tissue, thereby avoiding common side effects. A research team recently found that bubbles may be a surprising vehicle for starving tumors and delivering anti-cancer drugs.

“Starving” Cancer Cells

Tumor cells rely on a steady blood supply to furnish oxygen and nutrients required to multiply and spread to other parts of the body. In its absence, tumors use a process called angiogenesis to create new blood vessels.

Scientists had previously created a class of drugs known as angiogenesis inhibitors, which effectively halt blood vessel development. Embolization is an alternate method that incorporates drugs or nano-sized beads to block blood vessels.

A Non-Surgical Option to Defeat Cancer?

Gas embolization is a variation in which bubbles are used to create a blockage. Prof. Yi Feng and a team of scientists at Xi’an Jiaotong University in China conducted a study using blood vessel-rich intestinal tissue from rats.

In the first step, droplets of dodecafluoropentane, a fluorocarbon often used for conversion to gas microbubbles, were injected into the blood vessels. An ultrasound was then applied in a technique known as acoustic droplet vaporization (ADV).

As a result, the droplets formed bubbles that congregated in an area, with some of them uniting to create larger bubbles, effectively blocking the blood vessels. The team is hopeful that gas embolotherapy may eventually be used as a “double punch” attack on cancer.

Immunotherapy: Individually Created Cancer Treatment

For years, Issels® has helped patients with our non-toxic cancer treatment programs that boost the body’s own immune system. Visit our website for more information.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Cancer Treatment, Immuno-Oncology, Immunotherapy, Immunotherapy for Cancer, Uncategorized

Personalized Immunotherapy: The Future for Cancer Treatment One Story

Immunotherapy is Changing Cancer Treatment Again in Exciting New Ways
Immunotherapy is Changing Cancer Treatment Again in Exciting New Ways

At Issels®, we recognize that successful cancer treatment is designed for a patient’s individual needs. This immunotherapy approach recently saved the life of one woman whose recurring breast cancer was spreading to other parts of her body.

“Two to Three Months to Live”

In 2003, Judy Perkins of Port St. Lucie, Florida underwent a mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Just over two years ago the cancer returned, resulting in tennis-ball-sized tumors throughout her torso, including the lymph nodes.

This time around, Perkins was treated by Dr. Steven Rosenberg and his team at the National Cancer Institute. Rosenberg’s career has been devoted to the field of immuno-oncology, which involves finding ways to help the body’s own immune system attack and destroy cancer cells.

Weaponizing the Immune System

Rosenberg and his team began by obtaining samples of the tumors to sequence DNA and analyze tumor-fighting immune cells called lymphocytes. The scientists were then able to identify the specific gene mutations that allowed cancer cells to multiply and spread.

After determining which lymphocytes were most effective against the mutations, the team grew those cells in the lab and re-introduced them to Perkins’ system. In addition to doses of interleukin 2 and an immunotherapy drug approved by the FDA in 2017, Perkins received one last round of chemotherapy.

All tumors disappeared, and Perkins remains cancer-free today. Rosenberg is optimistic that this success will propel immunotherapy research to more breakthroughs.

Personalized, Integrative Cancer Treatment at Issels®

Many patients with advanced and therapy-resistant cancers have achieved long-term remission through our cancer treatment programs. Contact us to learn more.

Cancer Research, Immuno-Oncology, Immunotherapy, Immunotherapy for Cancer, Uncategorized

Autoimmune Disease May Hold a Key for More Effective Immunotherapy Treatments

Research is Under Way to Cross Out Cancer
Research is Under Way to Cross Out Cancer

Thanks to their ability to avoid detection by the immune system, cancer cells are able to rapidly reproduce and spread. In a major breakthrough, scientists have discovered that a gene associated with hair loss could provide valuable clues to improve immunotherapy for cancer.

Autoimmune Disease: The Other Side of the Coin

Ironically, a research team at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) turned to the autoimmune disease alopecia areata as the topic of their recent study, published last June in Cell Systems. While cancer is marked by failure of the immune system, alopecia represents the opposite situation, an immune system in overdrive.

Alopecia results in immune cells attacking and destroying healthy hair cells. During previous research, the CUIMC team isolated a gene called IKZF1 that causes overproduction of T cells in the immune system.

“Flipping the Switch” on the Immune System

In the latest study, the scientists demonstrated that IKZF1 is turned off in many cancer cells. The team then set out to test their theory that activating IKZF1 would trigger T cells to begin attacking tumors.

The study broke down into two parts:

– When a mouse model of melanoma was engineered to express IKZF1, the corresponding tumors revealed increased levels of immune cells.

– Analysis of data from a previous study of melanoma patients showed higher recurrence in those with disabled IKZF1.

Immunotherapy for Cancer: A Personalized Treatment

Immunotherapy for cancer programs at Issels® are focused on boosting your body’s own immune system, so they’re not accompanied by the side effects that frequently accompany conventional treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation.

Visit our website for more information.

Cancer Research, News, Uncategorized

New Understanding on How Cancer Cells Provide for Tumor Growth and Metastasis

New Understanding on How Cancer Cells Provide for Tumor Growth and Metastasis
New Understanding on How Cancer Cells Provide for Tumor Growth and Metastasis

At Issels®, our immunotherapy for cancer treatments have helped patients with metastatic tumors achieve long-term remission. A recent discovery by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison holds promise for developing a means to prevent the spread of cancer.

Exosomes: The Allies of Cancer Cells

Immunotherapy is aimed at helping the body’s immune system circumvent ways in which cancer cells avoid detection. One such method involves exosomes, which are protein-packed bags of fluid released by cancer cells.

Exosomes are powerful enough to affect the environment of cancer cells and divert the immune system, allowing cancer to spread to other areas in a process known as metastasis. The team at UW-Madison identified a protein called Munc13-4 that controls the release of exosomes.

Stopping the Spread of Cancer

According to the study, published in Journal of Cell Biology, Munc13-4 activates once it binds with calcium, which is frequently found at elevated levels in tumor cells. While calcium triggers exosome secretion in breast cancer, once the scientists removed Munc13-4. the secretion was halted.

The exosomes in the breast cancer cells contained an enzyme called MT1-MMP which breaks down the extracellular matrix, creating an environment that encourages the spread of cancer. Prof. Thomas F. J. Martin, senior author of the study, explained that by targeting Munc13-4, immunotherapy for cancer treatments could potentially prevent metastasis.

How Issels® Fights Advanced and Therapy-Resistant Tumors

Immunotherapy for cancer has been in the spotlight recently, but our successful use of these personally developed programs dates back to the work of our founder, Dr. Josef M. Issels. Contact us to learn more about cancer vaccines and other integrated treatments.