Tag Archives: Fighting Cancer

Using Your Own Immune Cells to Fight Cancer

June 13, 2014 heavy

In several research studies that employed a cancer patient’s own immune cells against her cancer, news reports have called the results “unprecedented” and “miraculous.” If researchers seem surprised by the power of the body’s own immune system to fight cancer, it is because the mainstream Western cancer community has only recently begun to recognize and harness the considerable cancer-fighting benefits of alternative cancer treatments such as immunotherapy.

Immunotherapy Results

Called a “game-changer,” immunotherapy is producing some truly amazing results:

Her tumors “melted away.” A woman with a deadly form of cancer that had metastasized to her bile duct, liver and lungs despite traditional treatment saw her tumors “melt away” after immunotherapy. Researchers identified tumor-invading T cells in her immune system that would attack a critical mutation in her cancer cells. Billions of these T cells were manufactured in the lab and infused into her bloodstream. While the woman’s cancer has not disappeared, her tumors are shrinking at an amazing rate and she is hopeful for the first time in years.
Cancer-free in 5 months. Another woman whose body was riddled with tumors from metastasized cervical cancer now appears to be cancer-free after a similar immunotherapy treatment. After isolating the immune system cells that were attacking her tumors, researchers multiplied the cells in the lab and infused billions of them back into her body. Just five months after treatment, the woman’s cancer scans started coming back clean and have remained cancer-free for 17 months and counting.

Issels Integrative Oncology has 60 years experience using immunotherapy to fight cancer. Call our alternative cancer treatment centers for information about our T cell treatments and immune system-boosting cancer vaccines.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

How Is Hyperthermia Used in the Treatment of Cancer Tumors?

June 11, 2014 heavy

Heat is one of the body’s primary defense mechanisms against disease. It is the reason you run a fever when you’re fighting the flu or an infection. Heating cells well beyond their normal tolerance can eliminate the harmful substances that are making you ill.

What Is Hyperthermia?

Hyperthermia, also called Thermal Therapy, is rooted in this natural defensive strategy and can be a valuable component of integrative cancer treatment. In hyperthermia, the entire body or the diseased portions of the body are purposefully heated to produce a therapeutic response.

When administered by Issels experienced cancer treatment teams as part of our immunobiologic core treatment for cancer, hyperthermia has produced beneficial results for many cancer patients. The healing technique is used not only at Issels Centers for Integrative Oncology, but also at a number of well-known university hospital centers in the U.S. and Europe.

History of Hyperthermia

The use of fever therapy can be traced back to the early Greeks and Romans. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, wrote, “Give me the power to produce fever, and I will cure all disease.”

Over the centuries, fever therapy has been a common disease treatment used by Native Americans, Chinese, Japanese and 18th century Europeans. In the 19th century, German physicians saw sarcoma regression or cure in patients who had endured high fevers from infectious diseases.

Hyperthermia and Cancer

Hyperthermia continues to be a valid disease-fighting treatment. Beginning in the 1950s, our founder Dr. Josef M. Issels administered fever therapy to thousands of cancer patients with remarkable results. There is continued and strong evidence that hyperthermia stimulates and regulates the immune system and is especially beneficial to cancer patients.

Visit our website to find out more about hyperthermia and other alternative cancer treatments.

Cancer Research, News

Google Ventures and Big Data on Cancer

June 6, 2014 heavy

Google Ventures has recently made a large investment into Flatiron Health Inc., a medical software company whose cancer patient data is used to help doctors make cancer treatment decisions. The $100-plus million investment reportedly enabled the company to purchase another software firm, Altos Solutions, which compiles oncology data and whose electronic medical records are cloud-based.

A plethora of alternative cancer treatment information – soon to be accessible via the cloud.
Flatiron’s software compiles a wide array of data, including clinical and genomic data, information on patient outcomes, notes from doctors, billing, and more for the use of oncologists. Compiled with Altos’ treatment data and cloud accessibility, this information will give doctors wider access to clinical trial information including past cancer treatments and outcomes which would have otherwise been difficult to access.

An investment in hope…
Bill Maris, managing partner with Google Ventures, stated they typically don’t make investments of this size unless they really believe in the team, the product, and the good it can do for the world. The acquisition of Altos by Flatiron is very complementary, offering a significant step forward in cancer care.

Google Ventures also investing in other medical data software companies.
Other Google Venture investments include DNAnexus, Inc., who is building the world’s first searchable archive of DNA information, as well as Foundation Medicine, with its tumor analyzing software, and Predilytics Inc., which tracks hospital discharges and re-admissions.

This combination of healthcare and internet technology offers an elegant solution for patient care, and with the help of Google Ventures, a clearer view of cancer patient needs and treatment options appears to be on the horizon.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Kids and Cancer Is There New Hope?

June 4, 2014 heavy

Cancer has plagued the world since the time of dinosaurs, and medicine has struggled to find a cure. When conventional treatments fail, however, new alternative cancer treatments may offer new hope.

A breakthrough in alternative cancer therapies
In one case of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Emily, age 6, was given an experimental therapy after chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant failed to cure her. Blood was taken from Emily, passed through a machine to remove white cells, and returned to her body. University of Pennsylvania scientists then constructed CARTs, chimeric antigen receptor T-cells, from a modified HIV virus, using them to reprogram Emily’s white blood cells to hunt down and destroy the cancer cells in her body. Two years later, she is still cancer free and the poster child for this radical new alternative cancer treatment developed by Novartis.

Fast-tracking therapy
Similar treatments in 25 children and 5 adults with Emily’s disease showed a 100 percent remission rate, in which cancer remained undetectable. As a result, Novartis is running clinical trials worldwide, determining how to limit side effects, and readying a manufacturing plant to create individualized treatments – forecasted to be completed by 2016. Novartis’ previous success with the breakthrough drug Gleevac, very successful against chronic myelogenous leukemia, a blood cancer, is seen as a good omen.

Novartis has purchased GlaxoSmithKline’s line of cancer drugs in order to focus on cancer cures in general, and could potentially transform cancer therapy in upcoming years. Hope is that this will be an historic period for breakthroughs in alternative cancer treatments such as cell-based and gene therapies, opening a new door for not only cancer patients, but those suffering diseases worldwide.

Cancer Research, Immunotherapy

What Is the Immunobiologic Core Treatment?

June 2, 2014 heavy

Issels immunobiologic core treatment for cancer is grounded in two cancer truths:

Truth #1: The Immune System Must Be Engaged

Cancer is not a one note disease that can be stopped with an antibiotic. Cancer is a symphony of diseases that affect the body in myriad ways. Cancer’s complexity is the reason traditional treatment methods often fail to achieve complete, long-term remission.

Researchers have begun to recognize what Issels cancer specialists have known for decades: The most effective cancer treatment results come from engaging the immune system to battle cancer cells. Unlike surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation which destroy healthy cells along with cancer cells immunotherapy works with the body, strengthening and supporting the body’s natural defense system.

Heralded by new Western medicine converts as “a whole new realm of medicine” and the “cancer protocol for the future,” integrative immunotherapy promotes the use of multiple beneficial therapies to bolster the immune system, enabling the body’s natural ability to destroy cancer tumors and the surrounding tumor microenvironment that drives cancer’s growth and spread.

Truth #2: Each Patient’s Biology Is Unique

The words “standard treatment” have no real meaning where cancer is concerned. Each cancer patient’s biology is unique. Differences in inherited genetic predisposition, medical history, environmental exposure, and lifestyle choices play important roles in an individual patient’s response to cancer and cancer treatment.

Issels cancer treatment centers use exacting testing methods, including genomic testing, to develop comprehensive treatment strategies that are personalized to meet the specific needs of each individual patient.

It is our ability to tailor immunotherapy to each patient’s unique biologic needs that has made our immunobiologic core treatment so successful for many cancer patients.

Living with Cancer

Starting an Exercise Plan While in Cancer Remission

May 30, 2014 heavy

Exercise has been called a “magic pill.” Exercise plays a vital role in maintaining a healthy immune system and helping your body fight off disease. There also appears to be a strong link between physical exercise and not only cancer prevention, but also reduced risk of cancer recurrence.

At Issels Centers for Integrative Medicine, our holistic approach to cancer treatment recognizes the benefits of exercise in achieving long-term cancer remission. Education in exercise and nutrition are included in our individualized immunotherapy plans. While some level of physical activity is encouraged during and after cancer treatment to strengthen the immune system and promote healing, we understand that most patients will need to adjust their physical activity to match fluctuations in strength and energy.

Cancer survivors should use the following tips to help manage their post-treatment exercise programs:

Start slow and build on your progress. Strengthening your immune system is a process. Increase activity levels gradually and don’t be upset by setbacks. It is normal for strength and energy to fluctuate after treatment. Give yourself time to heal. Do a little more when you’re feeling energized; a little less when you’re not.

Do what you enjoy. Immune system benefits can come from any physical activity. You’re more apt to exercise if you’re doing something you enjoy.

Try yoga. Yoga is an excellent low-impact exercise. Yoga does not require physical strength or stamina but offers an excellent workout.

Build stamina and muscle mass. Eventually, your exercise program should include a mixture of aerobic exercise to increase stamina and resistance training to rebuild lost muscle mass.

The Issels News Blog