Category Archives: Immunotherapy

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

New Smart Blood Test Allows Doctors to Tailor Treatment

New Smart Blood Test Allows Doctors to Tailor Treatment
New Smart Blood Test Allows Doctors to Tailor Treatment

One of the challenges doctors face in treating cancer is the difficulty of determining the most effective treatment protocols for each patient. Researchers are optimistic that liquid biopsies, or “smart blood tests,” will help match patients with appropriate therapies.

Using DNA Tracking for Individualized Treatment

At our Issels® center, immunotherapy for cancer is tailored to a patient’s specific case, including location of the tumor and its microenvironment. Liquid biopsies track cancer DNA, enabling doctors to customize a patient’s treatment and monitor progress.

Blood tests are minimally invasive, so patients could undergo the process frequently with no ill effects. Doctors can then track changes more accurately over time and determine whether treatment should be changed or modified.

Liquid Blood Tests Undergo Groundbreaking Trial

This fall, scientists from the Institute of Cancer Research in London will launch the plasmaMATCH trial with 1,000 breast cancer patients. Breast cancer makes a good test subject due to its propensity to mutate as a defense against treatment.

If the trial results are encouraging, experts hope that liquid biopsies will become a standard element of cancer care within the next two years. According to Professor Johann de Bono of the Institute of Cancer Research, smart blood tests could lead to major changes in cancer screening and risk assessment with the general public.

Personally Tailored Immunotherapy for Cancer at Issels®

Our non-toxic immunotherapy protocols are based on a patient’s particular tumor and microenvironment, as well as personal factors such as lifestyle and genetic predispositions. Contact us for more information, including testimonials from patients with all forms of cancer.

 

Cancer Research, Immunotherapy, Immunotherapy for Cancer

Immunotherapy: A Doctor’s Fundamental Change in Treating Cancer

Using the Body to Fight Cancer
Using the Body to Fight Cancer

Traditional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation are directed at fighting tumors head-on. Immunotherapy for cancer, which is aimed at making the body’s immune system more effective against tumors, has created a fundamental change in the way doctors approach treatment.

A Long-Held “Medical Dream” Becomes Reality

While the earliest attempts at immunotherapy date back more than 100 years, it presented too much of a puzzle to doctors. As a result, radiation and chemotherapy surpassed immunotherapy as the treatments of choice for cancer.

As modern research with immunotherapy uncovered more effective methods with documented track records, medical and financial floodgates have opened. Charitable organizations, pharmaceutical companies and the federal government are dedicating billions of dollars to fund hundreds of trials involving various treatments on every type of cancer.

Boosting the Body’s Own Immune System

While there is still much to learn, researchers are focusing primarily on two types of immunotherapy for cancer:

  • In the first method, a doctor removes some of the patient’s own immune cells and creates genetic alterations enabling them to attack cancer cells, at which point they are added back to the bloodstream.
  • The second method makes use of drugs known as checkpoint inhibitors, which block the mechanism used by cancer cells to evade detection and attack by the immune system.

Issels®: Leading the Way in Immunotherapy for Cancer

Our immunotherapy center has continued the groundbreaking work of our founder, Dr. Josef M. Issels, using state-of-the-art therapies to treat patients with all forms of cancer. Contact us today to learn more about our non-toxic treatments such as cancer vaccines and NK cells.

 

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Immunotherapy, News

National Cancer Institute Advances Research on Cancer Diagnosis

Advances In Fighting Cancer
Advances In Fighting Cancer

Diagnosing cancer goes far beyond simply confirming its existence. The effectiveness of immunotherapy for cancer and other forms of treatment improves greatly with timely and accurate information from high-tech diagnostic tools.

National Cancer Institute Spearheads Diagnostic Research

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) supports development of sophisticated equipment and testing through its Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis. Ongoing programs maintained by the division include:

  • Program for the Assessment of Clinical Cancer Tests (PACCT), which aims to break down barriers that hinder accurate diagnostic testing.
  • Strategic Partnering to Evaluate Cancer Signatures (SPECS), which looks for ways to use data from molecular analyses to improve care and treatment of cancer patients.
  • Cancer Imaging Program (CIP), which focuses on non-invasive imaging techniques to diagnose cancer along with specific subsets.

Why Diagnostic Procedures are Important

In addition to identifying the presence and extent of cancer, diagnostic tools are useful throughout the course of a patient’s treatment. Healthcare teams use them to recognize and classify specific genetic changes, determine the best course of treatment, and monitor patients for recurrence of cancer cells.

Ironically, as the effectiveness of tools and techniques has increased, so has the number of over-diagnosed tumors that are unlikely to have serious consequences. Researchers are also concentrating on ways to more accurately evaluate the data being provided by diagnostics.

Issels® is in the Forefront of Modern Diagnostic and Treatment Techniques

Our Issels® team stays up-to-date on the most advanced diagnostic methods as well as state-of-the-art immunotherapy for cancer treatments. Contact us today to learn how our personally tailored treatment protocols have helped patients with all forms of cancer.

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

Dendritic Cell Therapy Has Been Funded by the American Cancer Society

Advances in Cancer Therapies
Advances in Cancer Therapy

As part of the American Cancer Society’s initiative to eliminate cancer, they have funded research by some of the most brilliant minds in the medical field. Among the 46 ACS-funded scientists who have gone on to win the Nobel Prize is a doctor who did groundbreaking work involving dendritic cell therapy.

Top Scientists Go to Bat for ACS

Immunotherapy for cancer received a major boost when Dr. Ralph M. Steinman of Rockefeller University discovered the dendritic cell, which plays a vital role in the function of the immune system. Dendritic cells trigger responses in T cells, allowing them to more effectively target invading cancer cells.

Dr. Bruce A. Beutler, professor of genetics and immunology at Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, is another Nobel laureate who received a grant from ACS. Along with his colleague Jules Hoffman, head of a laboratory in Strasburg, France, Dr. Beutler conducted extensive research concerning innate immunity, which is the body’s first line of defense against cancer cells and other invaders.

ACS Grants Lead to Improved Cancer Treatments

Dr. Stein’s work led to the development of Provenge, a prostate cancer vaccine that has become a valuable part of immunotherapy for cancer. The findings of Dr. Beutler could ultimately result in more effective treatments for cancer as well as rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic inflammatory diseases.

Issels® Offers State-of-the-Art Immunotherapy for Cancer

Cancer vaccines are just one of the advanced non-toxic therapies used at our Issels® center. Contact us to learn more about how our personalized immunotherapy protocols have helped patients with all forms of cancer, including leukemia, melanoma and breast cancer.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Immunotherapy, Uncategorized

Non-Specific Cancer Immunotherapy Stimulates the Immune System

New Immunotherapy Drugs Can Help Fight Bladder Cancer
Non Targeted Immunotherapy

Targeted cancer therapies work by directly interacting with molecules that aid the growth and spread of cancer cells. Non-specific immunotherapy for cancer acts behind the scenes to bolster the immune system’s ability to fight cancer cells.

Types of Non-Specific Cancer Immunotherapy

Some non-specific therapies are administered on their own, while others are used as adjutants, which means they are used to supplement a main treatment such as a cancer vaccine. A few therapies are used in both ways, depending on the form of cancer being treated.

  • Cytokines are chemicals produced by certain immune cells that play an important role in the growth and activity of other immune cells. They are divided into interleukins, which speed up growth and division of immune cells, and interferons, which aid the body in resisting cancer as well as viral infections.
  • Immune checkpoint inhibitors help the immune system identify cancer cells that use certain proteins to evade detection.
  • Immunomodulating drugs (IMiDs) such as thalidomide, lenalidomide and pomalidomide appear to give a general boost to the immune system, although at present it’s not known exactly how they work.
  • Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is a germ that triggers the immune system by infecting tissue, although it doesn’t present a threat of serious disease. BCG is one of the earliest forms of immunotherapy for cancer.

Issels® Uses Both Targeted and Non-Specific Immunotherapy

As a leader in the field of immunotherapy for cancer, Issels® uses advanced methods such as vaccines and LAK cells in our individually tailored treatment protocols. Contact us to learn more about how immunotherapy may be the answer for you.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Immunotherapy

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors – The Role They Play in Cancer Immunotherapy

Using the Body to Fight Cancer
Using the Body to Fight Cancer

“Immune checkpoint inhibitors” is a term increasingly heard in reference to advancements in immunotherapy for cancer. These drugs have shown the ability to aid your body’s own immune system in attacking and killing cancer cells.

Lifting the Disguise from Cancer Cells

Think of checkpoints as your internal customs agents. Checkpoint proteins help the immune system differentiate between normal cells and foreign cells, then trigger a defensive response against the invaders.

Cancer cells sometimes have larger amounts of proteins than found in normal cells, which provide a camouflage allowing them to grow and divide without interference from the immune system. Checkpoint inhibitors target the appropriate proteins, removing the “mask” so the immune system can do its job.

Types of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

PD-1, which is found on T-cells, acts as a checkpoint by binding itself to another protein called PD-L1, letting the T-cells know they should leave the other cells alone.

  • Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and nivolumab (Opdivo) target PD-1 on the T-cells.
  • Atezolizumab (Tecentriq) targets PD-L1, the protein that helps cancer cells evade the immune system.
  • Ipilimumab (Yervoy) targets CTLA-4, another protein found on T-cells.

These drugs have been successfully used to treat kidney cancer, melanoma, bladder cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and non-small cell lung cancer. Research continues on other types of cancer, using these drugs independently as well as in combination with other drugs.

Issels®: A Pioneer in Immunotherapy for Cancer

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are just one of the cutting-edge treatments used at Issels®. Our individually designed protocols may also include cancer vaccines and activation of natural killer cells. Contact us to learn more about our non-toxic, state-of-the-art protocols.