Category Archives: Immunotherapy

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Breast Cancer, Immunotherapy, Living with Cancer

Actress Uses Cancer Diagnosis to Change Her Life

Targeted Cancer Therapy Can Bring Patients New Hope!
Hope with Diagnosis

Actress Shannen Doherty is best known as one-half of the Walsh twins on the hit TV show “Beverly Hills 90210,” but lately acting has taken a back seat to a more serious challenge. For the past eighteen months Doherty has used social media to share her brave and inspiring battle against breast cancer.

Her Courageous Journey toward Restored Health

In March 2015, then 43-year-old Doherty was diagnosed with breast cancer, which she made public the following August. She filed a lawsuit against her former business managers alleging that the diagnosis was delayed because they left her without medical insurance. The suit was settled this past August.

Early in 2016, doctors discovered that the cancer had spread to Doherty’s lymph nodes, causing her to undergo a single mastectomy in May. When Doherty was presented with the American Cancer Society’s Courage Award at a gala in November, she revealed that she had completed chemotherapy and was beginning a course of radiotherapy.

How Cancer Changed Her Lifemastectomymastectomy

Over the last year-and-a-half, Doherty has documented her treatment online in words and pictures. She credits cancer with making her a “better human being” and demonstrating which people in her life could be truly counted on, a group that includes her mother, husband and friends such as fellow actress Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Immunotherapy for Cancer: A Personalized Path of Treatment

At Issels®, our integrative immunotherapy for cancer programs are designed to address you particular needs. Our protocols attack and kill cancer cells while boosting your body’s own natural defenses. Contact us today for more information.

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

Could the X Chromosome Hold a Key to Cancer Incidence?

New Cancer Research
New Cancer Research

High school biology teaches that the Y chromosome is what distinguishes males from females, who have two X chromosomes. Cancer researchers are exploring the possibility that the additional X chromosome may hold a key to why women have a lower incidence of cancer than men.

Genetic Gender Bias?

The so-called “male bias” runs across all types of cancer. In the past it was thought to be caused by men’s greater exposure to environmental factors such as cigarette smoke and chemicals, but that didn’t explain a similar bias in juvenile cancers like pediatric leukemia.

According to Dr. Andrew Lane of Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, lead author of the study, everyone carries tumor suppressor genes that protect cells from cancer. When cancer develops, these genes lose functionality.

Strength in Numbers

The study revealed the genes that were mutated more frequently in male cancers occurred on the X chromosome. While this sounds counterintuitive, there’s more to the story.

One copy of the X chromosome is shut down in all cells, a process known as X inactivation. But approximately 50 of the 800 genes on the X chromosome are spared, leaving women with two sets of those particular genes. As a result, any cancer that develops must mutate twice as many of the genes in women as in men.

Genomic Testing and Immunotherapy for Cancer

Each patient’s cancer is unique, which is why genomic testing is one of the special methods we use at Issels®. Contact us for more information about our personally tailored immunotherapy for cancer treatments that destroy cancer cells while strengthening your body’s own natural defenses.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Breast Cancer, Cancer Research, Immunotherapy

The Presence of a Molecular Marker May Predict Breast Cancer for Early Treatment

The Molecular Mark

Breast cancer is still the leading cause of death for women who suffer from cancer, but early detection can improve the chances of successful treatment. In 2016 a group of researchers identified a molecular marker that can indicate a woman’s risk for developing the disease.

Identifying a Common Thread

The study was conducted by a joint team from Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). Researchers reviewed biopsies from 302 women who had been diagnosed with benign breast disease. Some of the biopsies dated back to 40 years ago.

Out of this group, 69 women later developed cancer and 233 did not. It was discovered that women with a higher percentage of a particular marker were more likely to develop cancer.

Ki67 is a molecular marker found in the lining of the mammary ducts and milk-producing lobules that identifies proliferating cells. These tissues are the site where most breast cancers develop.

The Present and Future of Ki67 Testing

While Ki67 testing is already being used to determine courses of treatment, this discovery will allow doctors to test precancerous tissue for use as a predictive tool. The method could help avoid some of the drawbacks of mammograms, which are currently the best option for early detection.

Immunotherapy for Cancer: A Personalized Method of Treatment

Genomic testing is just one of the specialized tools we use to create our individually tailored therapies targeted to meet your personal needs. Contact us to learn why Issels® is the leader in non-toxic and effective immunotherapy for cancer.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Immunotherapy

Strategic T Cells Use May Be the Key to Effective Cancer Treatment

Advanced T Cells

T cells are the warriors of your immune system, but the ongoing battle against cancer can sap them of their disease-fighting powers. New research has discovered crucial information about these “exhausted” cells that can lead to more powerful immunotherapy for cancer.

The fundamental difference between active and exhausted T cells lies in their gene patterns. One example is PD-1, a protein expressed by exhausted T cells that prevents them from attacking both healthy and diseased cells. Checkpoint inhibitors can block PD-1, but their use is productive in only 25 percent of cases.

Can “Exhausted” T Cells Be Revived?

According to Nicholas Haining of Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s, senior author of the report posted in the journal Science, the goal of the study was to determine whether exhausted T cells are simply run-down versions of functional T cells or a separate type entirely. Regulatory regions of T cell genomes were mapped using chronically infected mice as subjects.

Results showed that the two types of cells are controlled by completely different wiring. In a separate study, use of checkpoint inhibitors gave the exhausted T cells a temporary boost, but did nothing to convert them to an active state.

The researchers hope this information will help to improve CAR T-cell therapy, in which T cells are removed from a patient and retrofitted to attack tumor cells. Complete mapping of regulatory regions will provide more precise targets for treatment.

Immunotherapy for Cancer Focuses on Tumors and Their Causes

At Issels®, our integrative programs are aimed at eliminating cancer cells and enhancing your body’s own natural defense mechanisms. Contact us today for more information.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Immunotherapy, Immunotherapy for Cancer

Some Immunotherapy Drugs May Cause Heart Damage But There Is the Issels Safe Alternative

New Immunotherapy Drugs

New immunotherapy drugs on the market have shown tremendous benefits in battling cancer, but a potentially serious side effect has come to light recently. Some of these drugs, especially when used in combination, may cause heart damage.

Putting the Immune System in Overdrive

In November 2016 the New England Journal of Medicine published a report from a team of experts led by Dr. Javid Moslehi of Vanderbilt University. It involved two melanoma patients who died two weeks after their initial doses of Opdivo and Yervoy, manufactured by pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Opdivo and Yervoy are part of the class of drugs known as checkpoint inhibitors that boost the immune system’s ability to fight cancer cells. In some rare cases, it appears that the immune system also begins attacking the heart and other muscles.

Patient safety records at Bristol-Myers revealed that 18 patients out of 20,594 people receiving one or both drugs had experienced heart inflammation (for a rate of 0.09 percent). The rate increased for patients using both drugs, but it was still less than one percent.

Doctors are Cautious but Optimistic

According to Dr. Jeffrey Sosman of Chicago’s Northwestern University, who treated both patients in the report, overstimulation of the immune system was a known possibility. Many doctors believe drug combos are still the best option for effective treatment, but they are stressing that patients need to be informed of the risk and monitored closely.

Issels® Has Decades of Experience with Non-Toxic, Safe Immunotherapy for Cancer

Our clinic’s namesake, renowned cancer specialist Dr. Josef Issels, pioneered integrative methods of immunotherapy for cancer dating back to the mid-20th century. Contact us for more information about our safe non-toxic immunotherapy and cancer vaccines.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Immunotherapy, Immunotherapy for Cancer

Big Pharma’s Specialized T Cell Treatment May Be Too Toxic for Some Patients

Using the Body to Fight Cancer
T Cell Engineering

CAR-T is a remarkable new immunotherapy for cancer treatment that has been described as “heroic medicine” for patients who have exhausted all other resources. As Big Pharma begins taking steps toward bringing CAR-T to the market, certain toxic side effects have given some investors pause.

Pros and Cons of CAR-T

Your immune system includes T cells, which are a subtype of white blood cells. CAR-T involves harvesting a patient’s T cells, engineering them to recognize cancer then returning them to the patient’s system where they are now better equipped to fight cancer cells.

So far CAR-T has had particular success against leukemia and lymphoma, with one study resulting in leukemia completely disappearing from 90 percent of the participants. The bad news is that some test subjects have developed serious side effects such as cytokine release syndrome, which can result in organ failure.

The Search for a Safer Treatment

While experts believe the dramatically positive results greatly outweigh the potentially negative ones, researchers are at work exploring ways to make CAR-T safer for cancer patients. One promising approach is standardization of T cell doses by maintaining specific proportions.

Some researchers use a so-called “suicide switch,” which is a drug that causes T cells to self-destruct in the presence of high toxicity levels. Doses of the activation drug can be adjusted so it reduces toxic effects but leaves some T cells intact.

The Non-Toxic Alternative: State-of-the-Art Immunotherapy for Cancer at Issels®

While immunotherapy is a hot buzzword in the medical community, Issels® has been a leader in the field for decades. Contact us to learn more about the success of our personally-tailored non-toxic immunotherapy for cancer treatment programs.