Category Archives: Cancer Research

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

How Do T-Cells Help Fight Cancer?

T Cells
T Cells

Cancer cells appear to a well-functioning immune system as “foreign” cells. When cancer cells develop the immune system swings into action, using a dual action force to knock them out just as it does with foreign invaders. First your immune system launches innate responders like Natural Killer Cells to seek out and attack these cells (see our previous post). Your body’s first line of defense against cancer cells, viruses, bacteria and other harmful substances, Natural Killer Cells are the equivalent of the immune system’s Seal Team 6.

Adaptive responders like T-cells provide the immune system’s second wave of defense. Like an army’s occupying force, T-cells support Natural Killer Cells and other immune system “specialists” to provide your body with continuous, long-term protection.

Like Natural Killer Cells, T-Cells are a type of lymphocyte that originates in the bone marrow. T-cells eventually migrate to the thymus from which they get the “T” in their name. A specialized organ of the immune system, the thymus straddles the trachea and is located in the lower neck below the thyroid gland. In the thymus, T-cells undergo their final stage of maturation and receive their marching orders.

There are several different types of T-cells, each tasked with playing a specific role in helping with the recognition, attack and destruction of cancer cells and harmful invaders.

Issels Autologous Vaccine stimulates the formation and activation of T-cells. When used in conjunction with Issels integrative immunotherapy, autologous vaccines can strengthen and enhance your body’s immune system response to cancer cells. Visit our website to find out more.

Cancer Research, Immunotherapy

How Do Natural Killer Cells Fight Cancer?

Fighting Cancer Naturally
Fighting Cancer Naturally

Natural Killer Cells, or NK Cells, could be considered the body’s elite fighting force. These cellular warriors form the body’s first line of defense when it is invaded by viruses or other harmful agents and when it detects aberrant cells such as cancer cells that appear as “foreign”.

Living up to their name, Natural Killer Cells attack and kill tumor cells and virus-bearing cells by bombing them with protein granules. That these attacks take place at the microscopic level makes them no less devastating. Bombarded by a fuselage of protein “bombs,” tumor cells disintegrate and die in a process known as apoptosis, or programmed cell death.

The body’s immune system is divided into two divisions:

• Innate responders, such as Natural Killer Cells, form the front lines of your immune system’s defensive force, providing immediate defense when cancer cells develop.

• Adaptive responders, which include T-cells (more about them next time), are your immune system’s occupying force, providing long-lasting protection and immunity from future attacks.

Natural Killer Cells evolve from lymphoid stem cells which originate in your bone marrow, as do all immune system cells. Lymphoid stem cells produce the lymphocytes that identify foreign invading organisms and “foreign” appearing cancer cells, so they can be targeted by the immune system. Administration of Issels Autologous Lymphocyte cancer vaccine may be included in individualized integrated immunotherapy programs to enhance immune system response and promote the activation of NK Cells.

Natural Killer Cells have been shown to eliminate solid tumors and metastatic cells circulating in the blood stream. A 2009 analysis of 129 cancer patients who underwent Issels Out-Patient Cancer Treatment at our Santa Barbara, California medical center showed an average 48% increase in absolute NK Cell levels after three weeks.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Using Thermal Therapy to Fight Cancer

Alternative Cancer Therapy
Alternative Cancer Therapy

Fever is one of the natural defensive weapons your body uses to fight infection. When bacteria, viruses, toxins or other foreign invaders cause infection, your body turns up the heat. Under the guidance of knowledgeable and experienced physicians, this powerful immune system response can be used to help fight cancer via a therapy known as Hyperthermia.

Also called Thermal Therapy or Fever Therapy, Hyperthermia is the deliberate heating of the whole body or affected parts of the body for therapeutic purposes. For many patients at Issels Alternative Cancer Treatment Centers, thermal therapy has proven to be a valuable and effective component of integrative cancer treatment.

Fever Therapy has a long history of medical use dating back centuries but fell out of favor with the traditional medical community with the rise of the pharmaceutical industry and development of fever-reducing drugs such as aspirin and acetaminophen. More recently, practitioners of western medicine have begun to realize that the body knows best.

As Discovery Fit & Health explains, “It used to be standard medical practice to knock that fever out as quickly as possible. Not so anymore. The value of fever is recognized.”

Hyperthermia is now being used to treat cancer at several university hospital centers in the U.S. and Europe; however, our founder, Dr. Josef Issels, recognized the value of invoking this powerful immune response in the treatment of cancer in the early 1950s. Trained in Dr. Issels’ effective techniques, Issels’ cancer treatment teams have extensive experience administering hyperthermia in the treatment of cancer. Visit our website to find out more about thermal therapy and our non-toxic integrated immunotherapy approach to cancer treatment.

Cancer Research, Immunotherapy

New Research Finds Tantalizing Similarities between Aging and Cancer Cells

Similarities to Aging and Cancer Cells
Similarities to Aging and Cancer Cells

That cancer risk dramatically increases with age is a known fact. But why that is so has puzzled scientists. The general assumption has been that living longer simply increases our exposure to cancer-causing agents. However, a new study recently published in the journal Nature Cell Biology indicates that the very process of aging may play a major role in the connection between increased cancer risk and aging.

In studying the aging process of connective tissue cells, called fibroblasts, a team of Scottish researchers discovered aging cells exhibit many of the same DNA changes that occur in cancer cells. As explained on arstechnica.com, as we age our cells go through a process called senescence which causes changes to the epigenome. The epigenome consists of the proteins and biochemical compounds that attach to and can alter our DNA. While not actually part of our DNA, epigenetic alterations can be passed from cell to cell during cell division.

When aging cells enter senescence, changes in the epigenome direct cells to stop dividing; however, as cells age they begin to lose control over their epigenome, leaving it more vulnerable to modification. Scottish researchers discovered that the epigenetic modifications that occur during senescence are remarkably similar to the epigenetic changes observed in cancer cells. Scientists hope the revelation will take them a step closer to solving the puzzle of how cancer cells are able to continue multiplying and ignore genetic imperatives to stop dividing.

Like the tumor microenvironment targeted by Issels integrative immunotherapy, the epigenome may turn out to play a surprising role in cancer treatment.

Cancer Research

Study Links Allergies to Greater Blood Cancer Risk in Women

Allergies Linked To Cancer
Allergies Linked To Cancer

Women that suffer from airborne allergies, including hayfever, appear to be at greater risk of developing blood cancers, according to a study by researchers at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Curiously, a similar risk was not found among male allergy sufferers, prompting the research team to suspect “a possible gender-specific role in chronic stimulation of the immune system that may lead to the development of hematologic cancers,” Science Daily reported.

Allergies and cancer are both linked to dysfunction of the body’s immune system. “If your immune system is over-reactive, then you have problems; if it’s under-reactive, you’re going to have problems,” study leader Dr. Mazyar Shadman explained. “Increasing evidence indicates that dysregulation of the immune system, such as you find in allergic and autoimmune disorders, can affect survival of cells in developing tumors.”

Over an 8-year time span, the study tracked the health histories of 66,000 adults with no prior history of cancer malignancies other than non-melanoma skin cancer. The relationship between the development of blood cancers and various types of allergies was studied. Women with allergies to plants, grass and trees were found to have the highest risk of developing hematologic cancers. Researchers found study results surprising because men typically have a greater risk of developing blood cancers than women. Additional research is needed, but the chronic strain allergies place on an already weakened immune system may allow cancer the foothold it needs. Following in Issels’ footsteps, the American medical community is increasingly recognizing the importance of a strong immune system. Cancer vaccines to boost the immune system may someday become as common as allergy injections.

Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research

5 Ways to Cut Your Cancer Risk

Ways to Reduce the Risk of Getting Cancer
Ways to Reduce the Risk of Getting Cancer

“Right now, there’s no sure way to prevent breast cancer, but we know healthy habits significantly decrease your risk,” Debbie Saslow, the American Cancer Society’s director of breast and gynecologic cancer, recently told AARP The Magazine. Studies indicate that what is true of breast cancer can, in many cases, be successfully applied to other cancers with equally beneficial results.

The advent of Big Data has allowed cancer researchers to sift incredible amounts of patient data through highly sophisticated computer sieves. The result has been the discovery of myriad, often previously unknown, behavioral, health, environmental and genetic commonalities among people who develop the same type of cancer. While scientists continue to grapple with the “hows” and “whys,” it is clear that certain health and lifestyle choices can and with alarming statistical frequency do increase the likelihood of cancer development.

While scientists are still working to bring the mechanisms of cancer risk into focus, recent discoveries, backed by decades of experiential data, strongly indicate that five specific health habits have the potential to significantly decrease cancer risk. Interestingly, all are general health habits that support and strengthen the body’s immune system. Individualized immunotherapy, considered by many researchers to be cancer’s kryptonite, is ushering in what is being heralded as a new age in cancer treatment that is increasing medical focus on risk avoidance and cancer prevention.

5 Ways to Decrease Your Cancer Risk

1. Get at least 6 hours of sleep a night.

2. Lose weight.

3. Eat more vegetables.

4. Drink less alcohol.

5. Get more exercise.

Follow Issels, the alternative cancer treatment center, on social media for how-to tips on decreasing your cancer risk.