Tag Archives: Chemo Alternatives

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Immunotherapy for Cancer, Uncategorized

Personalized Dendritic Cell Vaccines As Effective Immunotherapy Make the News

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Sharing the Opinions of the Future
Sharing the Opinions of the Future

One of the benefits of immunotherapy for cancer is that treatments can often be tailored to address a patient’s individual needs. Scientists in Switzerland have now developed a method of modifying dendritic cell vaccines that makes them easier to personalize.

Aiding the Body’s Own Immune Response

Dendritic cell vaccines are normally created by force-feeding dendritic cells with tumor antigens. Scientists at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research have developed a modification that allows dendritic cells to acquire antigens from a patient’s tumor.

Prof. Michele De Palma, winner of the 2017 Swiss Cancer League award, led the team of researchers in creating an extracellular vesicle (EV)-internalizing receptor, referred to as EVIR. The EVIR has been optimized to enhance dendritic cells and their ability to selectively uptake cancer cell-derived EVs.

Antigen-laden exosomes and other extracellular vesicles are released by tumors in sizable quantities. The EVIR helps dendritic cells target the exosomes more precisely and present them to killer T-cells for a more efficient immune response.

Streamlining the Job of Dendritic Cells

De Palma explained the phenomenon of cross-dressing, in which dendritic cells display the acquired antigens directly on their surface. The process simplifies the immune response by eliminating the need for more complex interactions within the dendritic cell itself.

Dendritic Cell Vaccines and Immunotherapy for Cancer at Issels®

Dendritic cell vaccines are only one of the non-toxic cancer treatments available at Issels®. Our individually developed programs are created to maximize the ability of your own immune system to fight cancer.

Contact us to learn more about why Issels® has long been a groundbreaking leader in immunotherapy for cancer.

Living with Cancer

Cancer Cells Show Sensitivity to Metabolic Stress

Eat Healthy And Avoid Metabolic Stress
Eat Healthy And Avoid Metabolic Stress

Every day it seems researchers are learning something new about cancer. Recently, it was discovered that cancer cells could be vulnerable to metabolic stress. According to an article on Medical News Today’s website, this discovery could pave the way for new cancer therapies that won’t be harmful to normal cells. 

How Tumor Cells Get Stressed

Research has shown that a tumor is usually not made up of identical cells. When someone goes through chemotherapy the cells frequently change. This chromosomal instability causes cancer cells to stress out. When they are stressed, it could lead to metabolic disruption.  

What is metabolic stress? Metabolism is essential to life. It’s what turns food into energy. Metabolic stress puts a strain on the immune system, and could diminish muscle strength. 

Experiments are currently being conducted on Drosophila flies that will show how much stress unstable cells can tolerate. Dr. Gregory is hoping this study will be the jumping-off point to developing treatments that have no side effects. 

Ways to Avoid Metabolic Stress 

According to the article, chemotherapy is toxic to all dividing cells. That’s why there are so many chemotherapy side effects such as hair loss, pain, and infections. The immunotherapy treatments we provide at Issels® Integrative Immuno-Oncology have been shown to stop the growth of unstable tumor cells in many patients.

Other ways to avoid metabolic stress is by radically changing one’s eating habits and by working out. Exercise has also been linked to cancer prevention and reduced cancer recurrence. 

If you’re looking for a way to treat cancer that doesn’t involve weakening your body or the use of toxic chemicals, contact us at Issels® Integrative Immuno-Oncology. Our experienced doctors are happy to walk you through our immunotherapy treatments.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Uncategorized

High Cholesterol and Prostate Cancer Recurrence

High Cholesterol
High Cholesterol

Concerns about cholesterol and triglycerides creating problems for something other than your arteries? Apparently so. A recent study suggests a tie between high blood fats and the recurrence of prostate cancer.

The significance of normal blood fat levels
A study of 843 men whose prostates had been removed revealed an association between high levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, so-called “bad cholesterols,” and an increased risk of prostate cancer recurrence. Those with high cholesterol saw a 9 percent increase for every a10 mg/dL increase in cholesterol above 200 mg/dL. Thirty-five percent of those with a triglyceride level of 150 mg/dL or higher experienced recurrence as well. Read more information from the study.

Normalization of blood fats may reduce risk
Lead researchers at Duke University explained normalization – even partial – with the help of statins or dietary changes, was tied to a reduced risk of recurrence.

Increases in HDL, “good cholesterol”, raise the bar
The Duke team also found increases in HDL reduced the risk of recurrence by 39 percent for every 10 milligrams per decilitre (mg/dL) increase in the blood.

A word of caution
Though a link was shown, this does not indicate high blood fats as a cause for cancer. Statins for protection are not recommended at this time, according to Dr. Anthony D’Amico, chief of radiation oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Understanding the role of blood fats is important
Heart disease and cancer are the leading causes of death, attributable to 45 percent of fatalities worldwide. Further research is warranted to further explore this modifiable risk factor and how to best effect it in order to save lives.

Looking to change your lifestyle and safeguard your remission? Learn more about Issels Integrative Oncology integrative cancer treatments.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Living with Cancer, Stress Management

Alternative Cancer Treatment Is Popular with Patients

Alternative Cancer Therapy
Alternative Cancer Therapy

Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation have dominated Western medicine for decades. But a new player on the cancer team is earning cheers from patients. An estimated half of cancer patients now include some form of alternative cancer treatment in their cancer treatment program.

Alternative Treatments Go Mainstream

Many alternative cancer treatments are not actually “new,” although their therapeutic value has only recently been recognized by Western oncologists. Acupuncture, massage, nutritional immunotherapy and meditation are just some of the alternative therapies now being employed at university hospitals and U.S. cancer centers that have a long history of successful therapeutic treatment of disease in other cultures.

What’s Old Is New Again

Traditional medicine’s focus on immunotherapy as the future of cancer treatment is another example of mainstream medicine’s belated acceptance of alternative cancer treatment. Genetic and cellular research have added scientific proof to the experiential findings of alternative therapy practitioners who have long understood the critical role the body’s immune system plays in cancer treatment. While many U.S. cancer researchers are heralding immunotherapy as “new,” integrative immunotherapy has been practiced with beneficial results at Issels Oncology Centers for more than 60 years.

Merging Two Approaches

Cancer patients are benefiting from traditional medicine’s broadening view of cancer treatment. When used in conjunction with traditional cancer treatments, alternative therapies have been shown to greatly reduce the painful and unpleasant side effects of traditional treatments. More importantly, merging traditional and alternative cancer treatments improves your immune system response and enhances the effectiveness of cancer treatment.

Issels Oncology Centers works with many patients undergoing traditional cancer treatment. Contact us today for information about adding alternative cancer therapies to your cancer treatment program.

Alternative Cancer Treatment

Issels – Why Mexico?

Innovation In Cancer
Innovation In Cancer

Every year, over one million Americans are diagnosed with cancer. Of those diagnosed, studies suggest 60 percent turn to alternative cancer therapy in conjunction with or in lieu of conventional treatment, discovering a large number of these alternative facilities are located outside of the country, such as Mexico.

Why not the U.S.?
In the past, many clinics outside the U.S. were not taken very seriously, however those times have drastically changed. Because conventional forms of cancer care such as surgery, chemo and radiation are the only forms of therapy covered by the U.S. healthcare system and insurance companies, many doctors choose to practice in Mexico in order to offer a broader array of treatments from around the world – and at a more affordable price. Over 500,000 estimated cancer patients leave the U.S. for treatment annually seeking these highly successful treatments.

Why seek alternative treatment?
Integrative approaches to cancer treatment provide individualized regimens tailored specifically for each individual. They focus on healing the entire body, with the added benefits of fewer side effects and improved quality of life when combined with conventional therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation. Natural cancer therapies are also sought, offering hope, when conventional treatments fail.

How accepted are the alternatives?
For over a decade, complementary and alternative cancer treatments have been gaining acceptance, resulting in the creation of such organizations as the National Cancer Institute’s Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). In fact, Cancer.gov, the National Cancer Institute’s website, acknowledges the evaluation of certain CAM therapies and their capability to help patients feel better and recover faster.

Looking for a safer, more effective cancer treatment option? Contact Issels today.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Survivors

Women Call Alternative Cancer Therapies “Empowering”

Happy young woman with a white background
Alternative cancer therapy use is on the rise.

Four British women with cancer called their use of alternative cancer therapies “empowering” in interviews published in The Telegraph. As is true in the U.S. and Canada, more cancer patients in the United Kingdom are seeking alternative cancer treatments either instead of or in conjunction with standard chemotherapy and radiation treatments. The British breast cancer charity The Haven told the Telegraph that “89% of its service users found that non-medical, complementary therapies (including herbal medicine and nutritional, energy, touch and mind-body therapies) were ‘essential’ to their recovery.”

Surprisingly, despite considerable evidence to the contrary, the UK’s National Health Service has so far failed to recognize the importance of diet in boosting the immune system and fighting cancer, prompting an outcry from UK cancer patients. Like the other cancer victims interviewed, Alyssa Burns-Hills, a health specialist, cited diet change as integral to her successful fight against stage one invasive carcinoma. Carefully planned diet change is recommended by the immunotherapy and cancer experts at Issels Medical Center in Santa Barbara, California. Now 50 and cancer-free for 12 years, Alyssa credits her diet for playing a major role in her recovery and continued good health.

Alternative cancer therapies evoke much discussion, and there are all kinds of alternative treatments. But many cancer treatments that were once considered “out there” have proven to be reliably effective, including immunotherapy and diet, and are now embraced by traditional medicine. As the four women interviewed discovered, keeping an open mind about alternative cancer therapy could save your life.