Cancer Care Tips, Living with Cancer

Understanding Your Diagnosis of Cancer

Getting The News
Getting The News

Our greatest fears usually arise not from actual incidents, but from the unknown. Your mind begins running through a series of increasingly dire scenarios that may not even be realistic. If you’ve recently received a diagnosis of cancer, understanding what’s behind it can empower you to be proactive about your care and treatment.

Early diagnosis of cancer is an important element of successful treatment. Some types, such as skin or breast, may be detected through self-examination or various medical screenings. Others are revealed via corresponding symptoms or as a result of treating another condition. This is why it’s important to keep up with annual physicals and other preventive care, even if you’re feeling healthy.

Your caregiver’s first step will be a comprehensive physical exam and thorough review of your medical history. Tests are performed on blood, stool and urine to find any abnormalities that may point toward cancer. If signs present themselves, your physician will order further tests such as CT scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or ultrasound to pinpoint the location and size of the tumor. Final confirmation comes from a biopsy, which involves removing a tissue sample from the tumor to check for the presence of cancerous cells.

A positive diagnosis leads to the step known as staging. This process involves gathering specific information about the tumor, most importantly whether it’s localized or the cells have spread to other parts of the body. You should also get a second opinion from a specialist before proceeding with treatment.

At Issels alternative cancer treatment center, our integrative approach is tailored to your individual needs. Please visit our website to learn more about our successful non-toxic immunotherapy treatments.

Cancer Research

Are You “Dying” to Get Your Nails Done?

The Nails
The Nails

Are you risking cancer every time you get your nails done? The ultraviolet drying lamps used by nail salons are the heated subject of a long-running cancer debate that may finally have been put to rest.

Dangers of UV Light

At the heart of the controversy is the UVA light emitted by nail drying lamps. Ultraviolet light from the sun is composed of two kinds of light. UVB light generally affects the surface of the skin, causing sunburn; but it also suppresses the immune system which can leave sun worshippers more vulnerable to skin cancer. Considered more dangerous and a potent carcinogen is UVA light which penetrates more deeply into the skin, aging skin cells and damaging their DNA. The result is premature aging, the development of wrinkles and increased risk of skin cancer.

The proven link between prolonged exposure to UVA rays and increased risk of skin cancer and melanoma is behind the Food and Drug Administration’s recent campaign to warn consumers, particularly teens and young adults, about the potential dangers of using tanning beds and sunlamps.

Are Nail Salons a Cancer Risk?

While nail salon drying lamps do emit the UVA light associated with skin cancer, a definitive new study found little skin cancer risk from the brief exposure experienced during the average nail salon visit. However, researchers do recommend reducing risk by treating hands with sunscreen before going under the drying lamp. To further protect consumers, researchers also recommend federal standardization of salon drying lamp UVA output.

Our advice: Next time you visit the nail salon take along a tube of sunscreen to apply before sticking you hands under the drying light!

Cancer Care Tips, Cancer Research, Cancer Survivors

Vitamin D and the Cancer Connection

Vitamin D To Reduce Risks of Cancer
Vitamin D To Reduce Risks of Cancer

Does Vitamin D offer hope for alternative cancer therapy? A new study in the journal Clinical Cancer Research suggests low blood levels of this vitamin may be linked to more aggressive, advanced cases of prostate cancer in men.

What we do know…
Vitamin D effects how cells develop and grow, regulating the differentiation of cells as they change from stem to adult cells, and regulating the growth rate of normal and cancer cells. The skin makes it when exposed to sunlight, however Vitamin D levels are known to decline with age, in certain seasons and climates, and in individuals with darker skin, which naturally blocks sunlight.

What we don’t know…
Researches haven’t yet proved a cause-and-effect relationship, and don’t yet understand how Vitamin D comes into play. They are also unsure if taking extra might reduce prostate cancer risks and offer natural cancer treatment and prevention.

What the study shows:
Among the 667 Chicago men ages 40-79 studied with abnormal prostate screenings, the majority were found to be Vitamin D deficient. In addition, among those testing positive for cancer, those with very low levels were at greater risk of advanced, aggressive varieties. In addition, black men were more likely to be diagnosed.

What about Vitamin D’s relationship to cancer?
At this point, scientists only know that the rate of prostate cell growth (in a petri dish) slows when Vitamin D is added to the mix. They are now theorizing that too little of this vitamin may cause cell growth to go awry, leading to cancer.

Researchers admit larger, more extensive studies are necessary to examine the possible connection and address the many unanswered questions prompted by the research.

Living with Cancer, Uncategorized

Fault in Our Stars Faithfully Portrays Teens Coping with Cancer

The Fault in Our Stars
The Fault in Our Stars

Take tissues if you go see the new hit movie The Fault in Our Stars. The story of two teens with cancer who fall in love has a few weepy moments sandwiched between the romance, self-discovery and laughs. A faithful retelling of John Green’s best-selling young adult novel, the movie faithfully portrays the emotional highs and lows of teens trying to cope with cancer while struggling to live a normal life. (Click here to watch the trailer.)

The Plot

Hazel and Gus, played by Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, meet at a cancer support group. She has thyroid cancer, is depressed and must drag around an oxygen canister, an ever-present reminder of cancer’s life-shortening reality and the fact that she is different from the other teens at her high school. He is a basketball star who lost a leg to osteosarcoma but, now 18 months in remission, chooses to celebrate life.

The Lesson

Gus’ ebullient outlook is the perfect antithesis to Hazel’s dour view of life with cancer. While ultimately heartbreaking as childhood cancer often is, their summer romance is a story of hope and overcoming fear as they plunge into life with teenage abandon. Without the specter of cancer lurking in the wings, The Fault in Our Stars might have been merely another sweet teen romance on the summer movie circuit. But the threat that cancer will bring young hopes and dreams to an abrupt halt elevates the movie, reminding us that life is short and should be embraced and lived.

At Issels Integrative Oncology even stage 4 cancer stories can have a happy outcome. Click to hear our patients stories in their own words.

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research

Advances in Genetics Boost Success of New Immunotherapy for Cancer

Advances In Genetics
Advances In Genetics

Thanks to the advancement of gene sequencing techniques such as high-throughput genome sequencing, capable of breaking down an entire genome in a single day, a new cancer cell therapy treatment may become available to patients.

Successfully used to treat Melinda Bachini, a 45 year old Montana woman suffering from a rare bile-duct cancer after standard chemotherapy failed and resulted in hair loss and nerve damage, Bachini researched and decided to try the new experimental cancer therapy.

Reported in the journal Science, Dr. Steven Rosenberg’s team at the National Cancer Institute used a combination of cutting-edge genomics and recent insights into the human immune system. They identified specific CD4 T-cells  attacking the cancer in Bachini’s body, then literally pulled them off the tumor they were attacking and grew them in lab to later re-infuse into Bachini.

Treating Bachini first with strong chemotherapy to kill competing immune cells, she then underwent 2 rounds of this new treatment. The first reduced symptoms immediately and proceeded to shrink the tumors over 6 months. A second became necessary when the tumors began to grow back. All the mutations present in the cancer – and their associated T-Cells – had to be isolated, grown, and re-infused in order to eradicate the tumors.

This new immunotherapy for cancer is hoped to be used as a blueprint for attacking other types of cancers. Bachini’s case was the first to be treated with this personalized approach and also the first time doctors have been able to target a specific mutation in the immune system. It is anticipated further research into this alternative cancer therapy will provide additional treatment options for a wide array of cancers in the not-too-distant future.

Immunotherapy, Living with Cancer

Immunotherapy Offers Improved Quality of Life During and After Cancer Treatment

1 Comment
Advancement In Immunotherapy
Advancement In Immunotherapy

Cancer treatment should not just be about living longer. Your quality of life both during and after cancer treatment should be of equal concern both to you as a cancer patient and to the team of specialists that are directing your treatment. Its focus on improving the patient’s quality of life is one of the benefits of integrative immunotherapy that sets this alternative method of cancer treatment apart from traditional treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

What Immunotherapy Does

Immunotherapy taps into the power of your body’s own immune system, activating your body’s natural defenses against disease. Unlike traditional cancer treatments that destroy healthy cells along with cancerous cells, immunotherapy acts with your body to strengthen your immune system and healthy cells while targeting cancerous tumors and the tumor microenvironments that affect their growth and spread. What that means for many cancer patients is no unpleasant toxic side effects, an often faster recovery and a better quality of life during and after treatment.

“Very Exciting” Results

Cancer researchers new to immunotherapy have called its impact “very, very exciting.” As chronicled in the New York Daily News, a woman in the late stages of cervical cancer saw her tumors disappear and now shows no signs of cancer after undergoing an immunotherapy procedure similar to Issels autologous cancer vaccine. In the procedure, immune cells from the woman’s blood were multiplied in the lab and infused back into her blood stream with amazing results. The woman called the procedure “like Gatorade for the cells.”

Thanks to immunotherapy, this woman is one of many who are enjoying complete and long-term cancer remission. Find out more on our website.

Individualized Cancer Treatment