Tag Archives: Immunotherapy

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

Properties of Breast Tissue May Play a Role in Cancer Progression

There is New Hope for Breast Cancer Treatment
There is New Hope for Breast Cancer Treatment

Doctors have found some success with immunotherapy for cancer during the late stages of the disease, but the mystery of what causes certain tumors to spread has remained unsolved. Scientists are now turning to a surprising source for information about breast cancer progression.

A Matter of Engineering?

Ovijit Chaudhuri, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has been working with researchers across campus exploring the mechanical properties of breast tissue and their role in cancer progression. According to Chaudhuri, evidence supporting this relationship has been accumulating over the last 20 years.

Questions being studied by the teams include:

– How does stiffness of breast tissue encourage the growth and spread of tumors? Chaudhuri’s group is culturing mammary cells inside a hydrogel and tuning its stiffness to determine how it affects the development of cancer cells.

– How do cancer cells find their way past the membrane surrounding breast tissue that is seemingly too dense to allow passage? Currently, the scientists theorize that the cells use a combination of enzymes and force to “cut” their way through.

– As surrounding tissue grows in stiffness over time, how do tumors find space to expand?

Mechanobiology: A Complementary Approach

This isn’t the first time that scientists have sought biological information from the field of engineering. The result is the hybrid science of mechanobiology, which studies the interactions of mechanical properties and biological processes.

Immunotherapy for Cancer: Treating Resistant Tumors

At Issels®, our non-toxic immunotherapy programs have helped patients with advanced and therapy-resistant cancers achieve long-term remission. Visit our website for more information about our successful history of personally tailored and integrative cancer treatment programs.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Treatment, Uncategorized

One Important Step to Improving Treatment for Therapy-Resistant Cancers

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Cancer Therapies at the Molecular Level in Intracellular Proteins
Cancer Therapies at the Molecular Level in Experimental Antibodies

The use of immunotherapy for cancer has helped many patients with cancers that are difficult to treat or cancers that have spread. However, there have been certain limits on how this treatment works. In some cases, tumors have become resistant to this form of treatment. Researchers have been working on a combination therapeutic approach that shows more promise in effectively fighting cancer.

Experimental Antibody

Researchers at Stanford and Yale developed an experimental antibody that is able to target more immune cells that are involved with the growth of tumors. Current immunotherapy approaches focus on a smaller number of these immune cells, which limits their ability to eliminate cancerous tumors. While these approaches have stopped cancer from spreading in some cases, they have been unable to successfully deal with tumor growth in other cases.

The experimental antibody is able to prevent another type of immune cell, known as a myeloid cell, from contributing to tumor growth and immunotherapy drug resistance.

Combination Immunotherapy

The use of this experimental antibody along with immunotherapy drugs is showing the potential for effectively fighting cancer. Researchers have used it on cell culture models and mouse models that contain human cell membrane proteins. This combination immunotherapy approach limits the growth of tumor cells, making it harder for them to thrive and spread. Researchers still need to do more studies on this experimental antibody in order to determine if it can be used to treat cancer cases that are metastatic or more advanced.

To learn more about immunotherapy for cancer, please visit Issels®. We offer advanced programs for those who are looking for nontoxic forms of cancer treatment.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Immunotherapy for Cancer, Uncategorized

Immunotherapy Advances May Now Help Patients with Reoccurring Multiple Myeloma

Immunotherapy Can Expand Options for Those With Limited Cancer Treatment Options
Immunotherapy Can Expand Options for Those With Limited Cancer Treatment Options

One of the benefits of immunotherapy for cancer is that these treatments often have positive results where others have failed. Results of two recent studies show that immunotherapy has real possibilities for treating multiple myeloma.

What Is Multiple Myeloma?

Multiple myeloma is the second-most diagnosed form of blood cancer, just behind non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In patients with multiple myeloma, infection-fighting plasma cells grow out of control, causing bone tumors and chronic infections.

Immunotherapy for Cancer: A Promising Treatment for Multiple Myeloma?

In 2017, a research team from Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania conducted two separate studies involving patients with multiple myeloma that had proven resistant to other therapies.

Patients in the first study received a single dose of chemotherapy before being infused with CART-BCMA, a specific form of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy developed by Penn researchers in collaboration with Novartis. Results indicated that 64 percent of the group had a positive response.

In the second study, sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, patients received an experimental monoclonal antibody known as GSK2857916. The drug specifically targets delivery of a chemotherapy drug directly to cancer cells. Overall response rate was 60 percent, with more than half the responding patients experiencing a greater than 90 percent reduction in myeloma protein levels.

Both treatments target BCMA, which is a protein expressed by multiple myeloma cells.

Issels®: The Leader in Immunotherapy for Cancer

Our non-toxic, individually developed immunotherapy programs boost your body’s immune system and its natural defense mechanisms. Contact us for more information about our success treating patients with advanced cancer that has resisted other forms of therapy.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Immunotherapy for Cancer, Uncategorized

Immunotherapy Makes a Terminal Diagnosis Become Years Not Months

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Extending Your Life After Cancer May Now Be Attainable.
Extending Your Life After Cancer May Now Be Attainable.

At one time, a diagnosis of terminal cancer left little hope. Today, astounding developments in cancer treatment have created a segment of “super survivors” who live long past their terminal diagnosis.

Living with “Terminal” Cancer?

Canadian teacher Anne-Marie Cerato is a prime example of the new super survivors. Eight years ago, at the age of 32, non-smoker Cerato underwent treatment for lung cancer. Two years later, doctors found that the cancer had spread to Cerato’s other lung and she was diagnosed as terminal.

Cerato decided to quit her job and spend her remaining months traveling the world. Amazingly, months stretched into years, and Cerato has not only married but is considering a return to teaching.

The key to Cerato’s survival has been two pills a day of a drug called lorlatinib, which she takes as part of a clinical trial. Cerato’s tumors carry a rare gene reassignment, making her cancer the type that lorlatinib is designed to treat.

New Cancer Treatment Provides Hope

According to Dr. Mark Doherty, an oncologist in Toronto, clinical trials of lung cancer immunotherapy treatments have resulted in 20 percent of patients surviving the five-year point. Doherty pointed out that this response was “unheard of” with previous chemotherapy drugs.

These patients are not considered cured. Rather, their diagnosis changes from a terminal illness to a chronic but treatable disease. Doctors follow up with regular scans to make sure the cancer has not progressed.

State-of-the-Art Immunotherapy from Issels®

Our founder, Dr. Josef Issels, was ahead of his time in developing non-toxic, personally tailored immunotherapy cancer treatments. Contact us to learn how we are carrying on his legacy.

Cancer Research, Cancer Treatment, Immuno-Oncology, Immunotherapy, Immunotherapy for Cancer, News, Stage Four Cancer Treatment, Uncategorized

Some Cancers Cloak Themselves from the Immune System’s Discovery

Some Cancers Cloak Themselves from the Immune System's Discovery
Some Cancers Cloak Themselves from the Immune System’s Discovery

Immunotherapy cancer treatment is designed to aid the body’s immune system in recognizing and attacking tumor cells. Scientists are finally uncovering clues as to how cancer cells are able to evade detection by the body’s natural defenses.

How Cancer Blocks the Immune System

The first steps were taken in 2009 by a team headed up by Dr. Irving Weissman, director of Stanford’s Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Their research discovered that some cancer cells are able to emit a “don’t eat me” signal.

High levels of CD47, a transmembrane protein, are found on the surface of more aggressive cancer cells. CD47 then binds with another protein called SIRPalpha on the surface of macrophages, a type of white blood cell, inhibiting their ability to attack cancer cells.

In 2017, Dr. Weissman’s team published the results of a recent study that identified another protein that interferes with macrophage activity. When MHC class 1 binds with a protein known as LILRB1, it’s resistant to an antibody that has been used successfully to counteract CD47 in tests on mice with cancer.

Applications for Immunotherapy Cancer Treatment

Cancer research is complicated by the fact that different types have different “fingerprints.” The studies conducted by Dr. Weissman’s team are helping scientists learn more about strategies to “outwit” cancer cells and their ability to avoid detection.

Issels®: Pioneering Immunotherapy Cancer Treatment

Our founder, Dr. Josef Issels, was ahead of his time in focusing on the immune system as the key to defeating advanced cancer. Contact us to learn more about how we are continuing his legacy of helping patients achieve long-term remission.

Cancer Research, Cancer Treatment, Immuno-Oncology, Immunotherapy, Immunotherapy for Cancer, News, Uncategorized

Molecularly Targeted Therapy Emerges As Another Possible Cancer Treatment

Molecularly Targeted Therapy Emerges As Another Possible Cancer Treatment
Molecularly Targeted Therapy Emerges As Another Possible Cancer Treatment

The problem with traditional cancer treatments is that they attack healthy cells along with diseased cells, which results in serious side effects such as fatigue and hair loss. Doctors are encouraged by the success of a new cancer treatment that zeroes in on the cancer cells.

The “Next Revolution in Cancer Therapy”

Molecularly targeted therapy is being hailed as the next big step in cancer treatment. These new drugs are designed at the molecular level to attack the diseased cells of a specific type of cancer. In addition, they can identify specific molecules that are part of specific cancers.

The drugs are created by a process that is the reverse of how most cancer drugs are developed. Scientists identify an abnormal molecule that’s unique to a particular type of cancer, then design a drug that shuts down its activity.

Gleevec: Paving the Way

Novartis Pharmaceuticals has developed Gleevec, also known as STI571, which is leading the way for molecularly targeted therapy. Gleevec is used for chronic myeloid leukemia, or CML, which is a rare form of the disease characterized by excessive production of white blood cells.

Researchers discovered that Gleevec is also effective against GIST, a rare gastrointestinal cancer. GIST features a unique enzyme related to the original target enzyme in CML.

State-of-the-Art Cancer Treatment at Issels®

Gene-targeted therapies, including Gleevec, Tamoxifen and Avastin, are a significant part of our personalized treatment programs. Issels® also uses non-toxic immunotherapy treatments that boost the immune system’s ability to target tumor cells.

Contact us today for more information about our decades of success in helping patients achieve long-term remission.