Category Archives: Uncategorized

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Immuno-Oncology, Immunotherapy, Uncategorized

Kidney Cancer Beaten by Innovative Immuno-Oncology Treatments

Preventing Kidney Cancer
Preventing Kidney Cancer

Philip Prichard sought out oncologist Nizar M. Tannir at Houston’s MD Anderson Cancer Center in February 2013 with a massive 8-inch, 3.5 pound tumor and just months to live. Despite a previous surgery and other therapies, Prichard’s renal cell cancer had spread to his liver and lungs.

The last hope?
A clinical trial run by Tannir utilizing immunotherapy – the body’s own immune system – to fight cancer cells. The immune-oncology drugs were hoped to enable Prichard’s immune system, specifically his T-cells, recognize and destroy cancer cells that would have previously escaped detection.

The results?
Two weeks after the first treatment, Prichard’s fever, pain, night sweats, weight loss and anemia were relieved. After eight weeks and four infusions, the tumor shrunk approximately 50-60%. After two years, Prichard is so healthy Tannir must now decide if it’s time to stop Prichard’s treatments.

The immuno-oncology breakthrough?
Highly expensive, but effective drugs including ipilimumab, nivolumab and pembrolizumab that have been approved by the FDA for immuno-oncology. Though they are not a one-size-fits all option, talk at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual conference in Chicago is expected to be dominated by these immuno­therapies.

The trickle-down effect?
Dozens of studies are now underway seeking to expand on recent successes, and widen the scope of treatable cancers to include bladder, breast, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, head and neck tumors, and more. The immunotherapy drugs are also being tested in varying combinations with each other and other therapies. Early results look promising.

Today, immuno-oncology is being hailed as the fourth pillar of cancer treatment. Are you taking advantage of its miraculous results? Get your hope and your life back – contact Issels® the experienced cancer immunotherapy expert today!

Cancer Research, Immunotherapy, Uncategorized

Mainstream Medicine Embraces Immunotherapy Treatment for Cancer

Immunotherapy is Becoming More Mainstreem
Immunotherapy is Becoming More Mainstreem

A study designed and led by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York of a new immunotherapy cancer treatment is being hailed by researchers at the annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology as a potent new weapon in the fight against cancer. What is this revolutionary treatment? The body’s own immune system. Those involved in the study are divided as to just how excited to get over the results, however, and Issels® wants to give you the inside scoop…

The therapy?    
Cancer, unlike most other diseases, involves the body’s own immune cells gone rogue. Unrecognized as a threat, the immune system cannot target the dangerous cells. The therapy in question, however, can switch the body’s immune system back on: a combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab, created by Bristol-Myers Squibb, who sponsored the study.

How effective is it?
It halted the advancement of skin cancer melanoma for nearly a year in 58% of subjects. It has also shown promise in other hard to treat cancers, such as lung cancer and those that metastasize.

Why everyone is not 100% sold…
Thirty-six percent of patients involved in the study had to stop treatment due to side effects – stomach inflammation and bowel issues serious enough to require hospitalization. This led experts to caution treatment benefits may not offset the risks for some patients. Researchers also have yet to study the long-term survival rates for the immunotherapy, therefore physicians and patients have been advised to weigh these considerations carefully as studies of the combination continue.

Are you looking for game changing cancer treatment? Immunotherapy works we are experts in its administration to fight cancer! Contact Issels® to learn more about possible treatment options today.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Living with Cancer, Uncategorized

New Research: Melanoma Drug Causes Decrease in Lung Cancer Tumors

Lung Cancer On The Decline
Fighting Lung Cancer With Skin Cancer Drugs

At our Issels® Integrative Immuno-Oncology centers, we treat a wide variety of cancers including lung cancer. As previously mentioned, we offer this blog to give patients, caregivers, doctors, researchers, educators and students as much information as possible about new, beneficial immunotherapy advances that we feel can help patients.

As reported in May in the New England Journal of Medicine, a recent study found that nivolumab (Opdivo), a new immune checkpoint inhibitor drug that reveals cancer cells that pretend to be healthy cells to help push the immune system to destroy the cancer, is stopping the spread of melanoma and lung cancers almost two times better than ipilimumab (Yervoy).

Side Effects

Side effects with all immunotherapy drug treatments continue to be a problem for as many as 70 to 80 percent of patients. These two drugs were no different. Both caused side effects and the effects increased when the drugs were tested in combination.

Positive Outcomes

Researchers believe the outstanding results outweigh any side effects given there were no deaths during a trial that focused on 945 patients who had advanced and untreated melanoma. Best yet:

  • Patients who received nivolumab experienced a 7-month disease slowdown and a 34 percent tumor reduction versus a 3-month ipilimumab slowdown and 6 percent tumor reduction.
  • Combining both drugs resulted in a 11.5-month slowdown and a 52-percent reduction.

We believe at Issels® that the discovery of nivolumab (Opdivo) as a lung cancer treatment option, and the discovery of the higher effectiveness of the drug when used in combination with ipilimumab (Yervoy), represent incredible breakthroughs in immunotherapy and non-toxic treatment solutions. Contact us today for more information or to schedule an appointment.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Immuno-Oncology, Immunotherapy, Uncategorized

Chemotherapy Takes a Back Seat to Immunotherapy for One Patient

Fighting Cancer
Fighting Cancer

Who could testify to the benefits of immunotherapy with more credibility than an actual patient? Philip Pritchard of Memphis was diagnosed with renal cell cancer. Thanks to treatment with immunotherapy drug nivolumab, Pritchard has seen all traces of the disease virtually disappear.

Pritchard’s battle with cancer

Even after undergoing surgery and other treatments, Pritchard’s cancer had metastasized to his liver and lungs. An eight-inch, three-and-a-half pound tumor had been removed from his kidney. Pritchard had only months to live when he came under the care of oncologist Nizar M. Tannir at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Implementation of immunotherapy

Pritchard became one of the patients in Tannir’s clinical trial of nivolumab. The first signs came within two weeks, when Pritchard stopped suffering from  the cancer’s side effects like pain, night sweats and anemia. Four infusions over eight weeks led to a 50-60 percent reduction in the size of the main tumor.

That was in early 2013. Today, two years later, 50-year-old Pritchard has regained his health to such an extent that Tannir is considering the end of medication.

How do these immunotherapy drugs work?

Cancer cells have an innate ability to avoid the body’s T-cells, which are sent out by the immune system to attack foreign elements. Nivolumab and the other immunotherapy drugs are “checkpoint inhibitors” that remove the “brakes” keeping T-cells from doing their job.

Our Center for Immuno-Oncology creates a personalized therapy protocol using information about your genetics, lifestyle and environment. We work with patients diagnosed with all types and stages of cancer. Contact us today to learn more about our comprehensive treatment programs.

Cancer Research, Immuno-Oncology, Immunotherapy, Uncategorized

Immuno-Oncology Heralded as a Cancer Game Changer

New Cancer Research Is In the News
Immuno- Oncology Discoveries

Finding a cure for cancer has been probably the top priority for the medical community for more than 50 years. In that arena, the development of immuno-oncology has been a game-changer, with experts referring to it as “a whole new era” of cancer treatment.

Clinical evidence

This view was strengthened by two studies presented at the recent annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology. Both involved nivolumab, an immunotherapy drug that has already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating metastatic melanoma in patients for whom other medications have been unsuccessful.

In one study, nivolumab was paired with ipilimumab to reduce tumor size in patients with advanced melanoma by almost 60 percent. Melanoma is the most deadly form of skin cancer. The other study demonstrated that nivolumab reduced the chances of death from lung cancer by more than 40 percent.

The new standard of cancer treatment?

Results were so positive that they encouraged experts’ view that immunotherapy drugs could eventually replace chemotherapy as standard treatment for cancer. Prof. Roy Herbst, chief of medical oncology at Yale Cancer Center, believes that day could happen within the next five year.

Nivolumab is classified as a “checkpoint inhibitor,” meaning that it blocks the proteins that help cancer cells “hide” from the immune system. Using it in combination with other drugs gives immune cells a better chance to do their job.

Our center for immune-oncology has been successfully treating patients with individualized therapy protocols for nearly 15 years. Visit our website to hear and read testimonials in the words of our real-life cancer survivors.

Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research, News, Uncategorized

T-Cells Take Center Stage in This Cancer Treatment Protocol

Cancer Gene
T- Cells Take Over

Being told you have cancer is hard to hear from your doctor. Fighting it is harder. Here at Issels®, we respect how difficult it is for you and we do anything we can to help you in your battle. Sometimes that means researching new treatments that can potentially save your life.

An article in Science Mag talks about one of these new treatments. Researchers have tested new cancer drugs that can help improve your immune system. In clinical trials of these drugs on patients with melanoma or lung cancer that were given a poor prognosis, these drugs were able to improve the prognosis in many of the participants. They were useless in patients with colon cancer with the exception of one man, who, after being treated in 2007, showed no sign of his metastatic tumors for several years.

This new drug is an antibody that blocks a receptor on the immune system’s T-cells called PD-1. When tumor cells activate the PD-1 receptor, they can hide T-cells. If this “checkpoint” is blocked by a PD-1 inhibitor, the T-cells can see the tumor cells and attack them. Researchers hypothesize that melanoma and lung cancer respond so well to PD-1 inhibitors because of their multiple mutations. The mutations may alter genes, causing small stretches of abnormal proteins. The immune system tends to see these as unfamiliar proteins, or antigens. The more of these “neoantigens” there are, the greater an attack from T-cells unleashed from a PD-1 inhibitor.

For more on this new research, go to Science Mag to read the full article.

If you have questions about immunotherapy treatments we use at Issels®, come visit our website today.