Category Archives: Cancer Research

Cancer Research, Immunotherapy

Fruit Fly Experiment Emphasizes Value of Individualized Cancer Treatment

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Fruit Fly Experiment
Fruit Fly Experiment

We found some interesting parallels between the Issels approach to alternative cancer treatment and an unusual cancer experiment using fruit flies that was recently reported on CBS Sunday Morning. The experiment is a last-ditch attempt by an Atlanta businessman to beat medullary thyroid cancer, a rare, deadly and extremely aggressive form of thyroid cancer.

Mark Beeninga has been fighting cancer for 13 years. His tumor has proved resistant to standard treatments, returning after bouts of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and clinical trials. After years spent searching for new treatments, Mark has enlisted the aid of a fruit fly geneticist to develop an individualized cancer treatment designed to work on Mark and Mark alone.

Individualized cancer treatments aren’t new. Issels Integrative Oncology has a rich history of individualized immunotherapy cancer treatments that stretches over more than 60 years. It is only relatively recently that Western medicine has begun to explore beyond its traditional one-size-fits-all approach to cancer treatment. Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, told CBS that personalized cancer care specifically tailored to the individual shows the “greatest promise” for winning the war against cancer.

Mark and fruit fly geneticist Ross Cagan may be taking individualized care to a new extreme. Cagan has engineered a fruit fly that is a near genetic duplicate of Mark, replicating not only his tumor, but also his diabetes and other health issues. The purpose is to bombard the fly with different treatments to find something that will kill Mark’s specific tumor.

The approach is not unlike our commitment to creating highly personalized cancer treatment protocols designed to meet the specific needs of each individual patient. Mark is still waiting on results, but Issels’ approach has already proven successful for many patients.

 

Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research

Study Finds No Evidence that Mammograms Save Lives

Mammogram
Mammogram

In the ongoing debate on the effectiveness of mammograms as a breast cancer screening tool, a new study found no evidence that annual mammograms save lives. In what is considered the most rigorous and comprehensive study on the effectiveness of mammograms to date, Canadian researchers tracked 90,000 women between the ages of 40 and 59 over a 25-year period. Women were randomly assigned to have mammograms with physical breast exams or breast exams alone. The study found that mammograms had absolutely no impact on breast cancer mortality. According to a Fox News report, the same number of women in each group died of breast cancer, whether or not they had received annual mammograms.

Mammograms have been considered an important breast cancer screening tool for decades. The assumption has been that lives could be saved by detecting and treating breast cancer early. In reality, the study found that 1 in 5 cancers discovered through mammography and subsequently treated posed no threat to the woman’s health but did unnecessarily subject her to the pain and expense of surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation. Researchers concluded that there was no advantage to finding breast cancers before they were large enough to feel during physical examination.

Cancer overtreatment has been hot button public issue over the past year. This isn’t the first cancer screening test called into question. There has also been considerable debate about the value of prostate cancer screenings for men. In many cases, researchers have found that men are undergoing unnecessary surgery or radiation treatment for cancers that would never have impacted their health during their lifetime.

Considering the likelihood of unnecessary treatment, as pointed out by the Canadian study, women diagnosed with breast cancer might want to consider non-toxic alternative cancer treatment instead of undergoing more radical and physically damaging treatment.

Cancer Research, News

Researchers Discover Breath Test to Detect Lung Cancer

Blow Test to Find Lung Cancer
Blow Test to Find Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the deadliest cancer in the U.S., killing more people than the next three most common cancers – colon, breast and prostate – combined. According to the American Lung Association, more than a quarter million new cases of lung cancer are diagnosed in the U.S. every year. The difficulty of detecting lung cancer in its early stages and the invasiveness and cost of current diagnostic tests contribute to the deadliness of this devastating disease.

When lung cancer is not discovered and spreads to other organs, the five-year survival rate is just 4%, compared to 54% when lung cancer is detected and treated while still confined to the lungs. Discovery of a simple breath test that could lead to a new, non-invasive diagnostic test for lung cancer has the potential to increase lung cancer survival rates in the not so distant future. Scientists at the University of Louisville in Kentucky believe they can turn their discovery into a publicly available diagnostic test within five years, according to USA Today.

Expensive CT scans and invasive biopsies are currently considered the most effective means of diagnosing lung cancer. However, in recent tests Louisville researchers found elevated levels of four specific compounds in exhaled breath to be remarkably accurate in detecting the presence of lung cancer. The presence of elevated levels of just two of the four compounds was predictive of lung cancer in two-thirds of the patients studied. The absence of elevated compounds was also shown to accurately indicate that a mass in the lungs was benign. If brought to market, the simplicity and low cost of the breath test could lead to earlier and more successful treatment of lung cancer.

Integrative immunotherapy has shown to be effective for many lung cancer patients. Find out more on our website.

Cancer Research

What You Can Do to Decrease Your Cancer Risk

Reducing the Risk of Cancer
Reducing the Risk of Cancer

The World Cancer Report assessment that nearly half of all cancers could be prevented, offers a ray of hope in what the World Health Organization is calling a global cancer pandemic that threatens to nearly double worldwide cancer cases and cancer-related deaths over the next 20 years (see our previous post).

In the U.S., evidence that a combination of consumer education, cancer prevention techniques, early diagnosis and immunotherapy can successfully reduce cancer incidence and fatalities provides a useful template for battling cancer on both a worldwide and personal level.

One of the most important advances in the battle to defeat cancer has been the Western medical community’s perhaps belated recognition of the important role the body’s immune system plays in both cancer prevention and cancer treatment. Issels Integrative Oncology has been a leader in the development and practice of individualized immunotherapy for more than 60 years. Making lifestyle choices that promote a strong and healthy immune system can help decrease your risk of developing cancer.

When cancer does develop, our experience shows that integrated immunotherapy using autologous cancer vaccines with other non-toxic alternative cancer treatments to maximize immune system response to cancerous cells can produce remarkable results for many cancer patients.

To decrease your cancer risk, experts recommend the following:

• Stop smoking.

• Drink in moderation.

• Eat a healthy diet.

• Exercise regularly.

• Participate in cancer screening programs.

• Obtain vaccinations against cancer-causing agents such as HPV.

• Schedule regular medical check-ups.

Visit our website to find out more about the benefits of Issels unique program of integrated immunotherapy available at our alternative cancer treatment centers in Tijuana, Mexico and Santa Barbara, California.

Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research, Living with Cancer

New Study: Antioxidants Might Speed Lung Cancer

Antioxidants and Cancer
Antioxidants and Cancer

A new study calls into question one of the most widely accepted beliefs about cancer prevention: Eating foods that are rich in antioxidants can help decrease cancer risk. Not necessarily, say researchers at the University of Gothenburg Sahlgrenska Cancer Center in Sweden. Antioxidants may actually increase lung cancer risk for smokers and people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Antioxidants are supposed to protect the body from cancer by preventing free radicals from damaging cells. “These radicals can damage almost anything inside the cell, including DNA, and DNA damage can lead to cancer,” explained study leader Dr. Martin Bergo. By neutralizing free radicals, antioxidants should decrease the possibility of DNA damage and cancer risk.

However, Swedish researchers found that in people with cancerous or precancerous cells, the body’s response to antioxidants appears to backfire. Instead protecting, antioxidants short-circuit a key immune response to cancerous cells, accelerating cancer progression, according to a HealthDay report posted on WebMD.

The study tested response to vitamin E and acetylcysteine, an antioxidant supplement, in mice with early lung cancer. “We found that antioxidants caused a threefold increase in the number of tumors and caused tumors to become more aggressive,” Dr. Bergo said. “Antioxidants caused the mice to die twice as fast, and the effect was dose-dependent.”

The findings are of concern not only because they fly in the face of current cancer prevention recommendations, but also because acetylcysteine is commonly used to improve breathing in COPD patients. Until further testing can be done, researchers recommend that people at risk of lung cancer avoid taking antioxidant supplements. Issels cancer experts point out that study findings were limited to lung cancer and that antioxidants received through food were not implicated.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Alternative Cancer Therapy Breakthrough Could Transform Cancer Treatment

New Cancer Breakthoughs
New Cancer Breakthoughs

The combination of two alternative cancer therapies that are still in experimental stages could have the power to transform cancer treatment. The breakthrough discovery was recently announced by Canadian researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute (CHEO).

The new cancer therapy combines two alternative cancer treatments pioneered at CHEO: a recently developed viral therapy and an apoptosis protein inhibitor developed nearly two decades ago. Separately, each treatment showed promise but had failed to have a significant impact on cancer remission results. However, when the two therapies were combined in the lab and tested on mice, the results were dramatic. Combination magnified the cancer-killing effect of both therapies, resulting in a 90% cure rate in laboratory mice.

“The discovery, in effect, takes a drug that knocks out the genes that make cancer cells ‘bullet proof’ – something like pulling the plug on those cells’ resistance to dying – and gives it an extra push by priming the body’s immune response.” as lead researcher Dr. John Bell explained to the Ottawa Citizen.

Like other immunotherapy cancer treatments, the Canadian discovery is non-toxic, safe for children, highly effective against cancer and has the potential to be applicable to many different forms of cancer. Clinical trials of the combination therapy are expected to be scheduled soon. If successful, the Canadians estimate it will take about a decade before the new treatment will be available to patients as a non-toxic alternative to traditional chemotherapy and radiation and the destructive toll they take on the body.

As a pioneer in the use of immunotherapy to treat cancer, Issels welcomes this promising new addition to the growing body of immunotherapy-based alternative cancer treatments that are changing the way cancer is treated.