Category Archives: Cancer Research

Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research, Living with Cancer

The Diabetes and Cancer Connection Is It Real?

Diabetes Linked To Cancer
Diabetes Linked To Cancer

With more information about cancer, people can make better decisions regarding their health. Considering the evidence of a link between increased cancer risks and diabetes, people with high blood sugar have even more reason to start taking action.

The diabetes and cancer connection does not necessarily mean that diabetes itself causes cancer. Rather, scientists believe that people who exhibit high blood sugar — a resting level of 100 mg/dl or greater — tend to be more likely to develop certain forms of cancer.

One reason for the connection: insulin plays an important role in cell growth. With insulin problems, the body may be less equipped to fight the growth of cancer cells.

While the link is still not fully understood, some key medical facts have been established regarding diabetes and cancer:

  • High blood sugar levels are believed to increase your cancer risk by up to 15%.
  • The link between cancer and diabetes holds true for people who are not overweight.
  • People with prediabetes show higher rates for liver, colorectal and stomach cancers.
  • Diabetes has also been linked with higher risks of heart disease and other serious conditions.

Whether diabetes has a causal relationship with cancer remains unclear. However, enough evidence has mounted to suggest that risk groups for diabetes likely have higher risk for cancer as well.

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with prediabetes, consider the potential risk of cancer as another reason to make changes to diet and exercise.

Healthy habits play an important part in the holistic, comprehensive fight against cancer—you can contact us to learn more about advanced therapies and alternative cancer treatments.

Cancer Research, Living with Cancer

Tips to Boosting Weight Gain for Cancer Patients

peanut butter sandwich
Try to add calories as you can with easy to eat foods.

While eating is generally (and correctly) thought of by most as a pleasurable activity, its primary function is to provide your body with fuel and nutrients. This aspect becomes even more crucial when you’re undergoing cancer treatment. You may actually be losing weight at a time when it’s important to keep up your strength.

Eating properly boosts your energy levels, prevents muscle loss and fortifies your immune system.

Use these helpful tips to maintain a nutritious diet along with a healthy weight.

• It’s a basic formula: eating calorie-dense foods will make your weight go up. If you want to gain weight, add 500 to 1,000 calories to your normal daily intake. If your goal is maintenance, 15 calories per pound is a good rule of thumb.

• Protein is the building block of muscles. Rich sources include peanut butter, meats and seafood, nuts and cheese. If your system can’t tolerate high-protein foods, try low-fat cottage cheese, milk and yogurt. Protein powder is another method to increase your intake.

• Fruits and vegetables are chock-full of valuable vitamins and minerals. Choose dried fruits and 100 percent fruit juices along with starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes, corn and peas.

•  The American Cancer Society advises that it’s best to eat before you begin to feel hungry. If nausea is a problem, stick with sandwiches and other cold or room-temperature foods that don’t require cooking.

Our alternative cancer treatment includes non-toxic therapies with fewer side effects, making it easier to eat a healthy diet and maintain your weight. Visit our website to read real-life success stories from our patients.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research

New Melanoma Immunotherapy Shows Strong Promise

New Therapies for Melanoma Treatment
New Therapies for Melanoma Treatment

Traditional forms of cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation can be very effective for some patients, although they do have many severe side effects. In addition, not every patient responds well to these treatments, which is why there has been so much research done on various forms of alternative cancer treatment.

The FDA recently granted express approval to a new drug called Keytruda, which is chemically known as pembrolizumab. This powerful new drug treats cancer in a way that’s different from conventional cancer treatments. It actually boosts the body’s natural immune system and readies it to attack the cancer cells.

It’s common for patients receiving chemotherapy to suffer from side effects like nausea, vomiting and hair loss. Whereas in clinical trials, ninety percent of all patients who took Keytruda experienced no side effects whatsoever. The best part of the approval of this new drug is that Keytruda appears to be resulting in much longer life expectancy than other treatment methods. One study of 600 patients resulted in 62% of them making it past the 18-month mark.

Researchers are very hopeful that this is just the start of a great breakthrough in cancer treatment options. It is becoming increasingly apparent that immunotherapy, which is what Keytruda uses, is much more beneficial for patients both in terms of reducing their side effects and improving their overall life expectancy.

Alternative cancer treatments are quickly becoming the norm. It might only be a matter of time before they replace chemotherapy and radiation, simply because they really do work. If you or a loved one is looking for alternative cancer treatments, we would love to help you. Please contact us!

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Pennsylvania Teen Suggests DNA Mining Solution to Cancer Treatment

Teenager Suggests Cancer Treatment
Teenager Suggests Cancer Treatment

A Lancaster, Pennsylvania teen is all smiles these days. Marissa Witmer, a sophomore at Solanco High School, has been selected one of 12 teen semi-finalists in the National Academy Medical School Scholarship Challenge to find a cure for cancer. (Click to watch the WGAL News report.) The teen with the winning idea will receive a $185,000 scholarship to the medical school of their choice.

“I have been motivated to find an alternative treatment for breast cancer,” Marissa said. “All the women in my family have had some sort of cancer, so it’s like my mom and I are kind of next, and it would be kind of nice to figure something out before that happens.”

Traditional cancer treatments attack cancer cells from the outside, pummeling them with chemotherapy or radiation or removing them surgically. While current research has brought the cancer fight down to the cellular level, most new treatments seem to be focused on changing cancer cell behavior by manipulating external cell triggers.

Mining Cancer DNA

Marissa’s proposal would attack cancer cells internally, literally ripping their guts out. The teen wants to develop an alternative cancer treatment that would pull the DNA out of cancer cells, either killing them immediately or at least rending them harmless.

DNA manipulation of cells is already a laboratory reality so there’s every reason to believe that when Marissa is ready to enter medical school in seven years she’ll have the opportunity to make her dreams come true!

Issels Integrative Oncology has been a leader in the fields of integrative immunotherapy and alternative cancer treatment for more than 60 years. Visit our website to find out more about us.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

What Exactly Is a Cytokine and How Is It Used in Cancer Treatment?

Its Good
It’s Good

Cytokines are certain substances secreted by specific cells in your body’s immune system. These substances carry the signals that allow cells to communicate with each other. Cytokines may be proteins, peptides or glycoproteins and can interact with your immune system in both positive and negative ways.

What Cytokines Do

Cytokines may act to either enhance or suppress your immune system. Their impact on cell function may be felt locally or at a distance in another part of your body. Despite such functional differences, all cytokines share in the direction of your body’s immune response.

It is that ability to impact the functioning of your immune system that makes cytokines such an important factor in cancer treatment. By manipulating cytokines, integrative immunotherapy seeks to modify the dialog between cells. By changing the way cells interact, the goal of integrative immunotherapy is to remove impediments to a healthy immune system and amplify the body’s immune system response.

Using Cytokines in Cancer Treatment

Certain cancer drugs and cancer vaccines have been found to have a noticeable impact on cytokine production. Using vaccines to increase the presence of specific biologic response modifiers such as Interleukin-2 — which the body creates naturally but only in small amounts — floods the body with cancer fighting T-cells and Natural Killer Cells. This sudden influx of immune system-supporting cytokines significantly enhances your immune system’s response, giving it extra power to fight off cancer cells.

Over 60 years of clinical experience, Issels Integrative Oncology has found similar cancer-fighting benefits in other cytokines such as Interleukin-4, which promotes the generation of dendritic cells, and Interleukin-21, which enhances Natural Killer Cell activity. Visit our website for more information.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, News

Federal Budget Games Hurt Cancer Research

Low Budgets Are Hurting Research
Low Budgets Are Hurting Research

When the American Society of Clinical Oncology released its Annual Report on Progress Against Cancer last December, the cancer news was good and bad. Advances in cancer research were achieving “extraordinary progress in the fight against cancer,” but budget cuts and years of flat funding were delaying efforts to turn research into effective cancer treatments, Science Daily explained.

Effective Cancer Treatments

ASCO highlighted three cancer treatments at the forefront of cancer news:

  • Genomics: the use of genetic research to personalize cancer treatment.

Research-Treatment Link

The report links the development of cancer treatment techniques and the drop in cancer death rates “to our nation’s investment in cancer research over the past four decades.” Unfortunately, Congressional sequester and mandated federal budget cuts have slowed the pace of cancer research. More than half a million Americans die from cancer every year, but ASCO warns that cancer fatalities could increase dramatically without adequate research funding.

Funding Commitment Needed

ASCO’s plea that “Congress do its part to re-ignite our nation’s commitment to cancer research” appears to have fallen on deaf ears. The National Cancer Institute’s 2014 budget was $4.9 billion, only a slight increase over its 2013 budget. However, as explained by NCI Funding Policy, “this increase only restores about 53% of the sequestration reduction that NCI experienced during fiscal year 2013.”

It is time for the Congress to stop playing budget games that hurt cancer research. As ASCO President Clifford Hudis points out, “Lives depend on it.”