The Issels Treatment for Prostate Cancer Through Immunotherapy
Learn about the Issels Immunotherapy strategies to combat hormone-refractory prostate cancer.
Hormone-Refractory Prostate Cancer Treatment Using the Issels Non-Toxic Immunotherapy
Hormone-refractory prostate cancer is a disease that is incurable by current standard treatments. Research points to Immunotherapy as a possible recourse in this regard.
For hormone-refractory patients, as well as for prostate cancer patients at any stage, we provide a vaccine which represents an autologous cellular immunotherapy.
This cancer treatment can be classified as an active specific cancer immunotherapy, which is designed to stimulate a patient's immune system to target prostate cancer cells. The preparation of the vaccine involves culturing the patient's peripheral monocytes and dendritic cells in vitro in the presence of a recombinant growth factor, GM-CSF, special cytokines and their own prostate-specific antigen, which is fractionated into peptides in order to achieve an even more specific immune response.
Dendritic cells (DC) are highly specialized antigen-presenting cells and play a key role in the immunological reactions throughout the body.
Doses and interval depend on the patient's response and general condition. The side effects that some patients may experience comprise flu-like symptoms, a rise of body temperature for several hours and pain or tenderness in the tumor area for several days.
References:
Sam S Chang, MD, FACS, Rev. Urol. 2007; 9(Suppl 2): S13-S18. PMCID: PMC1887817. "Treatment Options for Hormone-Refractory Prostate Cancer"
Longo DL (July 2010). "New therapies for castration-resistant prostate cancer". N. Engl. J. Med. 363 (5): 479 81. doi:10.1056/NEJMe1006300. PMID 20818868.