Tag Archives: Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy for Cancer – Is It Right for You?

Could Immunotherapy Be Your Miracle Treatment?
Could Immunotherapy Be Your Miracle Treatment?

The concept of using your body’s own resources to fight cancer dates back more than 100 years, but immunotherapy for cancer has recently emerged in the public eye thanks to incredible advancements over the last 10 years. Is this cutting-edge treatment right for you?

Functions of the immune system

Traditional cancer treatments, such as radiation and chemotherapy, have focused on fighting tumors from the “outside.” Immunotherapy is different because it involves boosting your immune system’s ability to attack cancer cells naturally.

Your immune system operates much like an army, with each cell having a specific duty that contributes to the overall function.

• Cells on the “front line” recognize foreign bodies that have entered your system.

• Other cells take on the actual “battle” of attacking and defeating those invaders.

• “Messenger” cells tie everything together by facilitating communications between the cells.

How immunotherapy helps your body fight cancer

Cancer presents a unique challenge for this normally efficient process. Since cancer cells develop from your body’s own cells, the immune system has difficulty recognizing them, which gives these mutated cells a chance to multiply.

Immunotherapy for cancer involves complex interactions, but they generally fall into one of two categories. Some treatments make cancer cells more identifiable to your immune system. Others boost your system’s immune response, which includes actions such as blocking certain factors that enable growth of a tumor.

Our Issels® center has been successfully using immunotherapy for cancer for more than 60 years. Visit our website to read and watch testimonials from patients of all ages who have benefited from our personalized non-toxic treatments.

Immunotherapy: a Miracle Cure for Many

Let Issels Help You Survive Fighting Cancer!
Let Issels Help You Survive Fighting Cancer!

Chemotherapy and radiation are common forms of treatment for cancer, but they are not always effective. These forms of treatment can also cause unpleasant side effects or long-term effects.

Issels immunotherapy for cancer offers a nontoxic treatment method that is effective and doesn’t cause adverse side effects. Our personalized treatment programs have helped patients completely recover, even from aggressive forms of cancer.

Miracle Cure

While she was in her 40s, Lori Alf battled multiple myeloma, a blood cancer with a grim outlook. With the help of Dr. Carl H. June, Alf underwent an experimental treatment that used her body’s own immune system to fight the cancer cells. As part of this treatment, researchers took white blood cells from Alf’s body and turned them into cells that were able to target and destroy cancer cells.

These white blood cells were combined with a protein known as chimeric antigen receptor to help them recognize myeloma cells. Within two months of undergoing immunotherapy, Alf’s body was free of cancer.

One of the advantages of immunotherapy is that it does not carry the risk of graft-versus-host disease, a condition that can be life-threatening. This occurs when the body rejects transplanted stem cells that come from a donor. Since the cells used in immunotherapy are from the patient, there is no risk of rejection. Researchers believe that immunotherapy can be used to effectively and safely treat more than two dozen cancers.

If you would like more information on the Issels non-toxic immunotherapy for cancer, please contact Issels. We offer care for many different types of cancer.

What is Biotherapy Treatment for Cancer?

It's Time to Stop Cancer!
It’s Time to Stop Cancer!

You may sometimes hear immunotherapy for cancer referred to as biological therapy, or biotherapy for short. The prefix “bio” relates to living organisms, as opposed to “chemo,” which indicates chemicals. Biotherapy makes use of natural, living substances that assist your body’s own immune system in fighting cancer.

Biotherapy vs. chemotherapy

Traditional chemotherapy uses drugs to directly attack cancer cells. The main drawback is that chemo drugs can’t differentiate between cancer cells and healthy cells. As a result, damage to normal cells can result in nausea, fatigue, hair loss and other side effects associated with this type of treatment.

While your immune system does a good job at fighting bacteria and other foreign bodies, it has a hard time identifying and eliminating cancer cells. Biotherapy uses protocols developed from elements of the immune system, such as T-cells, cytokines and NK or natural killer cells, to harness and increase its cancer-fighting power.

How biotherapy affects the immune system

Biotherapy treatments can aid your immune system either directly or indirectly.

  • Direct assistance boosts the immune system’s ability to fight cancer cells by enhancing its power or making diseased cells easier to recognize.
  • Indirect assistance results from stopping or suppressing the process whereby healthy cells are transformed into cancer cells, as well as preventing cancer cells from spreading to other parts of the body.

Issels® is in the forefront of biotherapy cancer treatments

Personalized immunotherapy for cancer used at our Issels® center is based on special testing methods to determine each patient’s specific needs. Visit our website for more information about our individualized non-toxic therapies.

Hard to Fight Pancreatic Cancer Responds to Immunotherapy

New Cancer Treatment For Pancreatic Cancer
Pancreatic Cancer Treatment News: Chemotherapy Plus Immunotherapy

Pancreatic cancer is one of the more difficult forms to diagnose, resulting in a low survival rate. A recent study found that immunotherapy for cancer holds great promise for more effective treatment.

Current treatments for pancreatic cancer

Surgery is the best option for pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, the tumors are often discovered too late for surgery to be feasible. Doctors are left to use chemotherapy and other methods to control the cancer.

Medical breakthrough with immunotherapy

Researchers at University of Rochester Medical Center in New York set out to find a treatment that could make pancreatic cancer more receptive to surgery. The test involved use of PF-0416309, an immunotherapy drug that targets immune cells in pancreatic tumors.

Subjects included 47 patients whose pancreatic cancer had begun to spread. Eight received chemotherapy alone, while the others received a combination of chemotherapy and the immunotherapy drug.

Most of those who received the combination experienced a halt in the tumor’s growth, which was double the rate projected by the research team. Some saw their tumors shrink, while in one patient the cancer disappeared.

What’s next?

Side effects forced three patients to drop out, but otherwise no one had side effects more serious than those with chemotherapy alone. The researchers now plan to extend the scope of the test with phase 2 trials.

Issels® is the leader in immunotherapy for cancer

For years, our Issels® center has been ahead of the curve on immunotherapy for cancer. Our treatment programs are created individually,

based on each patient’s specific needs. Visit our website to learn more about cancer vaccines and other non-toxic immunotherapy treatments.

Immunotherapy for Cancer Explained

Building Your Immune System to Fight Cancer
Building Your Immune System to Fight Cancer

While our Issels® center has been using immunotherapy to treat cancer for years, the term has come into mainstream use fairly recently. How much do you understand about this cutting-edge treatment and the science behind it? Here’s a helpful look at the definition of immunotherapy along with how and why it works.

What is immunotherapy?

Immunotherapy is simply summed up by its name: it involves cancer treatment by way of stimulating your body’s own immune system to fight the tumors. This can be done with methods that directly target the system, or via man-made substances that supplement the system’s natural tools.

How your immune system works

When bacteria and other foreign cells enter your body, it triggers a response from your immune system, which begins producing substances to fight the invading cells. This reaction can be seen in a number of symptoms, from the redness of a sore throat to the blemishes of acne.

Unfortunately, cancer cells have ways to “trick” the immune system. One is by creating cells that aren’t different enough from normal cells to be recognized as foreign. Another is by producing alternative substances that neutralize the immune response. Immunotherapy for cancer is designed to help your immune system target these cells and giving it sufficient strength to fight them.

Fighting cancer with non-toxic immunotherapy

Vaccines and Cell Therapies prepared from the patient’s own immune cells are just two of the non-toxic immunotherapy approaches available at Issels®. Visit our website for more information about our center, along with testimonials from the many patients we have successfully treated.

The Unquestionable Game Changer in Cancer Treatment

Integrative Immunotherapy is the Unquestionable Game Changer in Cancer Treatment
Integrative Immunotherapy is the Unquestionable Game Changer in Cancer Treatment

As recently as 15 years ago, the chances of survival for a patient whose melanoma had spread to other parts of the body were only slightly more than zero. Today, thanks to advancements in the area of integrative immunotherapy, these patients have a legitimate source of hope.

Paving the way for treatment

Pete Daly was one of those patients for whom a diagnosis of metastatic melanoma meant a bleak future. With immunotherapy entering a clinical trial phase, Daly believed his participation would give meaning to his situation by helping others.

Up to that point, testing had been done only on monkeys. It didn’t take long to see results as within weeks Daly’s doctors found that his tumors were shrinking. Currently, 13 years after testing Daly continues to show no signs of cancer.

Former President Jimmy Carter is another patient who has benefited from integrative immunotherapy. He is also no longer showing signs of the melanoma that had formed in his liver and brain.

Immunotherapy is a “game changer”

Oncologist Dr. Mark Albertini of the Carbone Cancer Center at University of Wisconsin Health credits the courage of patients like Daly for contributing to the development of immunotherapy treatments, which he refers to as “game changers.” Dr. Albertini stresses that early detection is still key to successful cancer treatment.

Issels® has been a pioneer in the use of integrative immunotherapy treatments that are personalized to meet each patient’s individual needs. Visit our website today to learn more about our cancer vaccines and other advanced non-toxic cancer treatment protocols.