Tag Archives: Cancer Treatment

Cancer Treatment, Uncategorized

What is Cancer and How Does it Develop?

When you or someone you love is diagnosed with cancer, learning as much as you can about this disease can be helpful. This knowledge can help you make decisions on cancer treatment and understand more about how this disease develops.

What Is Cancer?

Although you’ve probably heard about cancer for years, you might not know exactly what it is. Cancer is a disease that causes cells in your body to grow and multiply in an abnormal way. Usually, your cells normally grow when certain signals in your body tell them to. Cancer cells don’t need these signals in order to grow. Instead, they grow on their own. These cells also don’t pay attention to signals that tell them to stop growing.

In some cases, cancer cells can spread to other parts of the body, which is known as metastasis. Cancer cells typically form tumors that are able to grow and travel to other areas of your body. Certain types of cancer, such as blood cancers, do not usually have solid tumors.

Cancer Development

How does cancer develop? This disease can develop when changes in certain genes occur. These genes are responsible for controlling how cells grow and divide, so changes to them can result in abnormal growth.

These genetic changes can occur for different reasons, such as DNA damage from the sun’s ultraviolet rays or cigarette smoke. In some cases, these changes are inherited from parents. In other cases, errors during cell division can lead to these changes.

Ways to Treat Cancer

Different treatment options for cancer include chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, and immunotherapy. Each option treats cancer in a different way.

If you’re interested in learning more about immunotherapy for cancer, please contact Issels® today. We can help you learn more about this type of cancer treatment.

Living with Cancer, Uncategorized

Coping and Living Well After A Cancer Diagnosis

When you receive a diagnosis of cancer, your mental and emotional adjustment can make a difference during your course of immuno oncology treatment. Unfortunately, most people have no frame of reference for coping with such news.

The American Cancer Society offers helpful tips for coming to terms with a cancer diagnosis and continuing to live life to the fullest.

Follow Your Own Path

Your situation is unique. Others may offer ideas of what has worked for them, but don’t feel obligated to follow them to the letter. View these tips as suggestions and try out different methods to find your own best solution.

Learn About Your Cancer

Knowledge is power. The unknown is often more frightening than the reality, so take time to educate yourself about your type of cancer and the various treatment options that are available.

Stay Active

The link between exercise and mood is well-documented. Physical activity stimulates production of endorphins, which are natural mood elevators. Consult with your doctor to make sure you’re not overdoing it.

Let Your Feelings Out

Many people believe that fear, anger and other negative emotions must remain hidden, but that can make your situation even harder to bear. Talk to friends and family, join a support group or try an artistic outlet such as writing or painting.

Be Kind to Yourself

Make a point each day of doing something that makes you happy, whether it’s meeting a friend for lunch or simply meditating for 15 minutes.

Issels®: Immuno Oncology Personally Created for You

Our non-toxic immunotherapy programs are individually designed to meet your specific needs. Contact us to learn more about the Issels Cancer Treatment.

Cancer Treatment, Uncategorized

Why Some Cancers are Resistant to Traditional Therapies

Advances in cancer treatment allow for precision targeting of cells that cause damage. The flip side is that some cancers can become resistant to these traditional therapies. What are the factors behind this concerning development?

Mutations vs. Behavioral Changes

It’s well-established that cancer is a genetic disease. Changes in DNA, whether they’re random accidents or caused by carcinogens such as tobacco or UV rays, result in cancer by altering the way cells grow and multiply.

In some cases, cancer cells will mutate in such a way as to “dodge” the effects of treatment. However, in cases that doctors are observing with targeted chemotherapy, DNA remains the same and it’s the gene activity that changes. Epigenetic signals, a layer of regulators that control the activity of genes, are at the core of this new resistance.

Melamoma and Treatment Resistance

Scientists at the Systems Biology and Cancer Metabolism Lab at the University of California, Merced studied melanoma to gain some insight into this development. Melanoma is a particularly aggressive form of skin cancer that’s often caused by prolonged exposure to ultraviolet rays.

UV damage can cause mutations in a major signaling regulator known as BRAF. This protein is responsible for signaling cells regarding when to grow and divide and when to stop. Mutations triggered by UV rays cause BRAF to leave the growth signal turned on, leaving cancer cells to multiply unchecked.

Initially, targeted chemotherapy can successfully restore BRAF’s “off switch.” In some cases, rather than mutating further, cells “learn” how to bypass BRAF altogether, continuing their growth.

Personalized Cancer Treatment for Advanced Cases

At Issels®, our personalized immunotherapy programs have often achieved success after traditional methods have been exhausted. Visit our website for more information, including testimonials from patients in long-term remission after undergoing our non-toxic cancer treatment.

 

Immunotherapy for Cancer, Uncategorized

Some Cancer Risk Factors Are Within Your Control

Cancer is driven by numerous and complex risk factors, making concepts related to calculating its risk a frequent subject of debate. Adding to this debate is a Johns Hopkins study looking at randomly mutating cells, specifically how they play a predominant role in cancer development. What does this say about your cancer risk? Issels® wants to help you put this new information in perspective.

Cancer and car accidents: They have a lot in common…

  • Trip length
    Comparing getting cancer to getting into a car accident, the length of your trip – your lifespan – increases your risk. The longer you live, the more the odds increase of your body randomly mutating cells, making this a significant risk factor – attributable to two-thirds of your total cancer risk in fact.
  • Road conditions
    Just as rain or snow can increase your risk of an accident, so too can conditions in your body and in your environment increase your risk of cancer.
  • Mechanical issues
    Bad brakes or worn tires can be seen as a metaphor for genetic factors, such as inherited mutations.

Reading the accident report
Despite this research, it can’t be stressed enough no single factor causes cancer. Two-thirds of car accidents are not related solely to trip length, but to a combination of road conditions, mechanical issues, and the like. For each “accident,” the major contributing factor will vary.

Accident prevention
Due to the large combination of risk factors, there are many opportunities for prevention, including addressing radiator issues (smoking), regular maintenance (early diagnostics and detection), and more.

Cancer spinning out of control? Contact Issels® today.

Immunotherapy, Uncategorized

Use Your Body to Fight Cancer

Conventional cancer treatment, such as chemotherapy and radiation, focuses on using external methods of destroying cancer cells. Immunotherapy focuses on using your body’s own defenses to fight cancer. Issels® Immunotherapy offers several cancer vaccines that are non-toxic and do not cause adverse effects, including the following.

Prostate Cancer Vaccine

This cancer vaccine helps the immune system find and destroy cancerous cells in the prostate. Prostate cancer vaccines contain monocytes, cytokines, and other elements of the patient’s immune system, which helps provide a more targeted immune response.

Autologous Dendritic Cell Cancer Vaccine

This cancer vaccine involves the use of dendritic cells, which play an important role in the immune system. These cells have a strong potential to trigger an immune response that effectively destroys tumors. This cancer vaccine contains tumor antigens, cytokines, and other elements of the patient’s immune system.

Coley’s Mixed Bacterial Vaccine

This cancer vaccine helps the patient’s body produce interleukins, interferons, and other parts of the immune system that are needed to fight disease.

Lymphokine-Activated Killer Cells

This cancer vaccine contains LAK cells and interleukin-2 that help the patient’s body fight cancer.

Activated Natural Killer Cells

This cancer vaccine contains NK cells and interleukin-2 to help the immune system fight cancer.

Uses for Cancer Vaccines

Cancer vaccines can be used for a wide range of cancer types, including cancers that are typically difficult to treat using conventional methods. Since they use the patient’s immune system to fight cancer, they don’t come with a risk of side effects or adverse reactions as other cancer treatments do. Cancer vaccines are an important part of immunotherapy and provide a highly personalized approach to fighting cancer.

To learn more about immunotherapy as cancer treatment, please contact Issels®. We can give you more detailed information on cancer vaccines and other therapies.

Living with Cancer, Uncategorized

Good Nutrition Increases Quality of Life During Treatment

Getting the right vitamins and minerals from the food you eat is so important as a cancer patient. However, many people don’t realize that nutrition is seriously affected by both cancer and the treatments used for it. Here at Issels®, we care about more than just treating cancer. Our focus is on improving your quality of life during your treatments. It is our hope that these nutrition tips for cancer patients will be helpful for you.

Nutrition Tips for Cancer Patients

Prior to cancer, you may have been fairly healthy. Most people are familiar with what they need to do to eat a healthy diet. You probably focused on eating:

  • Plenty of whole grain foods
  • Less red meat
  • Lots of vegetables
  • Lots of fruits

As you know, when you have cancer your desire for food changes. You may need to make some changes in your diet too. Don’t be afraid to:

  • Eat foods that are higher in fat to keep your weight up
  • Eat high calorie foods
  • Drink plenty of milk if it tastes good to you
  • Eat ice cream because it may be soothing to a dry or sore throat

Why is Getting Adequate Nutrition So Hard for Cancer Patients?

If you have cancer, your body is going through a lot of changes internally. You have probably noticed that your throat is often dry. You may not have much of an appetite, or you could have sore teeth or gums. A number of problems can affect your appetite.

At Issels®, we can help you cope with these and other issues you may be facing. Contact us to learn more.