Category Archives: News

Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research, News

What is Chronic or Controlled Cancer?

The Difference Between Cancers
The Difference Between Cancers

Many people view cancer as an all or nothing condition. They think that having cancer is a death sentence and successful treatment of cancer means it is completely eradicated from the body. At Issels® Center for Immuno-Oncology, we understand that each cancer patient is unique and personalized treatment protocols are the best approach. For some people, cancer is a chronic condition like diabetes or heart disease. Though the cancer may not ever go away completely, it can be controlled with treatment.

Chronic or controlled cancer

According to the American Cancer Society, a cancer that can be controlled through treatment, but does not disappear completely, is classified as controlled. Many ovarian cancers, types of leukemia, and a few types of lymphoma are controlled with treatment. These cancers continue to exist but not grow or spread to other organs. Treatment may be done as maintenance or only when the cancer starts growing.

Partial and full remission

For a cancer to be classified as in remission, the decrease in size must last for a minimum of one month. Cancer in remission is not eliminated or considered cured. When treatment results in tumor no longer being visible on a scan, it is called a complete remission or complete response. A reduction in size of at least 50 percent is called a partial response or partial remission.

Treating chronic cancer

While some cancers require ongoing maintenance treatments, some types can be kept under control through chemo when it begins to grow. Some cancers will become resistant to chemo and require other treatment options. Call Issels® today to find out more about our non-toxic immunotherapy protocols.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, News

Legislation Would Improve Care for Cancer Patients through Palliative Care Research

Cancer Research
Cancer Research

Cancer patients receiving the best medical care can still be left fending for themselves in coping with pain, stress and other auxiliary effects of treatment. A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress this past July aims to ease their burden by making palliative care more widely available.

This specialized form of care is centered on improving quality of life for patients dealing with cancer or other life-threatening diseases by helping them manage chronic symptoms associated with their illness and its treatment. Palliative care also reduces overall stress by allowing patients to be proactively involved with their healthcare team in determining the course of treatment and setting goals.

Public opinion research discovered that 70 percent of Americans are not even aware of palliative care. The Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act, introduced by New York Representatives Eliot Engel and Tom Reed, aims to reduce that statistic.

The bill provides for expanded federal research into palliative care along with corresponding training for allied health care professionals. It also calls for the establishment of a nationwide awareness campaign centered on educating the public about palliative care and its benefits for patients and their families.

Palliative care can be initiated for patients of any age at any stage of their illness. According to research supported by the American Cancer Society, palliative care reduces the amount of time patients spend in intensive care while allowing them to experience greater quality of life.

The personalized therapies you receive at our Issels® immuno-oncology centers include compassionate physician treatment that extends to your aftercare. Contact us for more information.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, News

Off-Label Arthritis Drug Shows Promise in Blood Cancer Treatment

Nano Pills To Detect Cancer
Blood Cancer Treatments

A common drug used in the treatment of arthritis may offer a new hope for cancer patients. At one thousandth of the cost of today’s latest blood cancer treatment, Issels® wanted to let you know about this important discovery.

The arthritis drug in question:
Methotrexate. A drug commonly used to treat inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and psoriasis. A World Health Organization ‘Essential Medicine’, the drug is well-understood, and if results are confirmed, could be used for treatment throughout the developing world. A one year course of low-dose treatment: $46. The cost for a single 60 tablet bottle of the current treatment, ruxolitinib: over $9,000. It is so costly that many retail pharmacies refuse to stock it.

What is it being purported to treat?
Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). Typically seen in the 50-70 age range, MPN causes an overproduction of blood cells in the body. Symptoms include night sweats, itching, and tiredness. Though ruxolitinib has been developed for the treatment of MPN, it prices itself out of the market for most patients, whose treatment is otherwise limited to aspirin, excess blood removal, and chemotherapy.

What’s next?
Though further testing following the research performed by U.K.’s University of Sheffield confirmed the results, clinical trials are now being scheduled at Royal Hallamshire Hospital. Once complete, the new course of treatment with the repurposed drug could offer financial relief not only patients, but local and regional healthcare systems as well. The study could spawn research into the repurposing of other, previously safety tested, prescription drugs.

Are your cancer treatment options overwhelming your budget? At Issels® , you have options. Contact us today.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, News

Levitating Cells May Lead to a Cancer Cure Breakthrough

Super Charged Cells
levitating Cells

Our Issels® team is extremely supportive of any process that makes detecting cancer cells easier, which is why we are highly enthusiastic about research published in May’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about a potential new diagnostic tool that can detect cancer at the cellular level in a fast and simple way.

Researchers at Stanford University have learned how to detect and identify different types of cancer cells by levitating them.

It’s Not Magic

When most people hear the word “levitate,” they think of magicians tricking audiences into believing magic exists by floating objects or people in the air.

Scientists have discovered that they can levitate animals by injecting them with a material that reacts to the presence of magnets. The Stanford researchers wondered if they could do the same with cells to determine if cells had different measurable magnetic field levitation profiles. As cells are too small to inject with materials without damaging them, the researchers decided to test their theory using a buoyant force:

  • They placed a channel of gadolinium-laced fluid between two small magnets and soon found that any cells that were less dense than gadolinium levitated above it.
  • They learned that cancer cells levitated above healthy cells and that cancer, bacteria, blood and yeast cells levitated at different heights.
  • They also discovered that cells that form different types of cancer, such as breast, colorectal, esophageal and non-small cell lung had unique profiles and levitated at different heights.

For more information about this astounding new diagnostic test research, or any of our currently available testing and treatment methods, contact any Issels® center for Immuno-Oncology today!

Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research, News, Uncategorized

T-Cells Take Center Stage in This Cancer Treatment Protocol

Cancer Gene
T- Cells Take Over

Being told you have cancer is hard to hear from your doctor. Fighting it is harder. Here at Issels®, we respect how difficult it is for you and we do anything we can to help you in your battle. Sometimes that means researching new treatments that can potentially save your life.

An article in Science Mag talks about one of these new treatments. Researchers have tested new cancer drugs that can help improve your immune system. In clinical trials of these drugs on patients with melanoma or lung cancer that were given a poor prognosis, these drugs were able to improve the prognosis in many of the participants. They were useless in patients with colon cancer with the exception of one man, who, after being treated in 2007, showed no sign of his metastatic tumors for several years.

This new drug is an antibody that blocks a receptor on the immune system’s T-cells called PD-1. When tumor cells activate the PD-1 receptor, they can hide T-cells. If this “checkpoint” is blocked by a PD-1 inhibitor, the T-cells can see the tumor cells and attack them. Researchers hypothesize that melanoma and lung cancer respond so well to PD-1 inhibitors because of their multiple mutations. The mutations may alter genes, causing small stretches of abnormal proteins. The immune system tends to see these as unfamiliar proteins, or antigens. The more of these “neoantigens” there are, the greater an attack from T-cells unleashed from a PD-1 inhibitor.

For more on this new research, go to Science Mag to read the full article.

If you have questions about immunotherapy treatments we use at Issels®, come visit our website today.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, News

Discovery of Six Molecules that Block Cancer

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Blocking Cancer
Blocking Cancer

In a recently released paper from the University of Kansas, scientists announced they have isolated six molecules capable of blocking the protein HuR. Known as an “oncoprotein” that attaches itself to RNA, the HuR protein enables tumor growth. These findings could potentially lead to new non-toxic cancer treatments like those used by Issels® Integrative Immuno-Oncology. Personalized treatment protocols and immunotherapy are proving to be the best route to a cancer cure.

HuR inhibitors

Researchers have been studying HuR cells for many years. The cancer-building protein is found at high levels in practically every type of cancer. These six molecular needles that the University of Kansas scientists have found in the haystack of human molecules are considered a significant breakthrough in halting cancer stem cells, which are considered the seeds of cancer. According to Liang Xu, associate professor of molecular biosciences and one of the authors of the paper, there were no known HuR inhibitors prior to this discovery.

Potential for a wide array cancer treatments

Xu goes on to say that because HuR has a significant role in so many different types of cancer, the discovery of these proteins holds promise for new cancer drugs in the fight against cancers that attack all areas of the body. HuR and other RNA-binding proteins have been considered untreatable until now. This study, published in ACS Chemical Biology, provides proof of the concept that a new class of cancer drugs can be developed specifically for cancer stem cells.

The treatments used at Issels® Integrative Immuno-Oncology are the result of decades of research and scientific breakthroughs. Contact us to learn more and sign up for our free e-News-letter.