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Issels Treatment Center

In-Patient Treatment in a Full-Service Hospital

Treatments | Admissions | Medical Records | Financial Arrangements

Travel and Arrival Plans | Facility and Accomodation | What to Bring

Nutritional Support | Spiritual/Emotional Support

Home Care Program | Home Therapy Program and Follow-up | Cases
 

 

The Issels Treatment Center

The Issels Treatment Center occupies a wing in a state-of-the-art hospital specializing in alternative/complementary and conventional cancer care for 40 years. It is a full-service hospital and ITC patients have access to the hospital’s surgical, diagnostic, and intensive care capabilities, as well as to all specialties and services. The hospital is a member of the North American Hospital Association.

The ITC medical team is formed by physicians who have many years of experience in conventional and alternative/complementary cancer medicine. The medical director of ITC was trained by Dr. Josef Issels himself in the Issels Treatment.

>>>For additional information on Treatment and Costs please click here or call 1.888.447.7357.

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Treatments

Dr. Josef Issels is regarded as the Father of Integrative Cancer Treatment due to his conception and publication of guidelines for Multidisciplinary Diagnosis and successful Treatment of Cancer, Immune Disorders and Chronic Degenerative Diseases. The Issels Treatment integrates conventional and alternative/complementary medicine depending on the individual patient’s needs. It focuses on both the tumor and the internal bodily environment which promoted the development of the tumor.

Click here for a description of the core treatments and approach.

>>>For additional information on Treatment and Costs please click here or call 1.888.447.7357.

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Admissions

Your admission to ITC is a specialized process, which begins with the Issels Information Center and the Issels Treatment Center Admissions. Please call 888.4.ISSELS (888.447.7357) from the USA and Canada, or 001.888.447.7357 from abroad, so that we can provide you with all the information you need.

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Medical Records

We recommend that you fax the medical records such as the reports of the pathology, of the surgical summary, the latest CT-scan, PET-scan, bone-scan, MRI and blood examinations to the fax number 1.619.690.8426, ATTN: Issels Department. The medical team will evaluate the condition and if they feel they can help, they will propose a treatment protocol that will be submitted to you for review and approval.

Ask your current physician to order the essential documents. If possible, specific diagnostic films (i.e. magnetic images, CT scans, ultrasounds x-rays, bone scans, etc.) should be requested (unremarkable films are unnecessary). We suggest that you hand carry your films when you travel to the Issels Treatment Center.

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Financial Arrangements

Once you have decided to come to the Issels Treatment Center, you should make your arrangements with the Issels Treatment Center Admissions office prior to your arrival. We will communicate with the hospital, advising them of your arrival. An admission form that you will be required to sign and fax back will be sent to you. This form will include the costs and methods of payment for the Issels Treatment. Payment will be accepted upon admission in the form of cashier's check or wire transfer.

>>>For additional information on Treatment and Costs please click here or call 1.888.447.7357.

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Travel and Arrival Plans

Make arrangements to travel from your home to San Diego, California. Airlines can impose advance-purchasing restrictions, but will sometimes waive them if you indicate you are traveling for medical reasons.

Once you know your flight schedule, please contact the Issels Treatment Center at 888.447.7357 from the USA and Canada, or 001.888.447.7357 from abroad.

The hospital provides door-to-door services from the San Diego Airport to the Issels Treatment Center at no charge for patients who have made admissions arrangements for therapy as long as the patient is able to walk on his own power. You will be met by the driver in the baggage claim area. He will have a sign with your name and the hospital logo. He will help you with your baggage and take you directly to the Issels Treatment Center. It is a 30-40 minute drive from the airport to our hospital.

If you miss a plane or your plans change en route, please contact the Issels Information Center at 888.447.7357.

Patients who do not have a US visa can fly to Tijuana airport where the hospital driver will meet them.

*** Patients who will need the support of an ambulance must inform the Issels Treatment Center Information or Admissions office before traveling. The hospital does not provide ambulance service and any expense incurred for ambulance services is the responsibility of the patient. ***

Fasting Requirements:
Begin fasting at midnight before your first day of treatment. It is important to consume liquids, drinking water only.

Checking In:
You will be greeted and welcomed by your Patient Representative who will accompany you to your room and give you a tour of the hospital.

Registration:
You will be asked to fill out a registration form. Once you have registered, you will receive an identification card and meal tickets. You will be asked for this card regularly, so please keep it handy. You will also receive an Issels Treatment Handbook that provides information that will prove helpful during your stay. Your Patient Representative will check in with you daily and help you with any special needs or requests that you may have.

>>>For additional information on Treatment and Costs please click here or call 1.888.447.7357.

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Facility and Accommodation

In addition to all specialty medical services, the hospital offers many activities that are conducive for healing and very much appreciated by the patients and their companions. Patients and their companions are encouraged to get together in the community rooms for educational lectures, videos, art therapy, sing-alongs, games, etc. Outdoor activities such as strolls by the nearby ocean are recommended. A special area is designated for meditation and prayers, if so desired. Psychological guidance is offered by the hospital psychologist.

The patient rooms are very spacious. Each room has in addition to the hospital bed, a king size bed for a companion and a recliner for your comfort. Each room has been equipped with its own thermostat for individual preference.

Each room has a private telephone line and a TV. Patients can bring their laptop computer and there is also free access to computers for patients for 15 minutes per day, or longer, if nobody is waiting. The hospital also has high-speed internet access.

>>>For additional information on Treatment and Costs please click here or call 1.888.447.7357.

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What to Bring

• Bring pajamas! Once again, your comfort is one of our main concerns. That's why we don't like to use the traditional hospital gowns here. Please bring sleepwear that you find comfortable.


• Many patients find sweatsuits to be most comfortable and walking shoes for strolls by the ocean.


• Bring a sweater or sweatshirt for spring and summer, and a coat for the fall and winter. Although the climate is mild year round (temperatures range between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit) the ocean breeze often chills people.


• The hospital has a laundry facility where you can have your clothes laundered for $5.00 per load. Laundry bags are available in the patient’s room. Laundry is collected, washed, folded and returned.


• Bring an extra duffle bag to take home medication and other things you may purchase on your trip.


• If possible, bring a tape recorder and blank tapes. It is a good idea to record all doctors' consultations and lectures. The tapes will prove to be very valuable when you wish to review information.


• Many patients make lifetime friends with other patients and staff here at the Issels Treatment Center. You may like to bring a camera to take the memories home with you.

>>>For additional information on Treatment and Costs please click here or call 1.888.447.7357.

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Nutritional Support

Knowing that one-third of cancer patients die of malnutrition, we make nutrition a top priority in your overall treatment plan. Our nutritionists are registered dieticians who create a well-balanced diet plan, often including vitamin and mineral supplements, to boost or sustain your immune system and help reduce treatment side effects.

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Spiritual/Emotional Support

The Hospital has an emphasis on spiritual and emotional support. An independent ministry sponsors full-time live-in counselors who are available to every patient at the hospital at any time, night or day. Counselors are very respectful of a person's religious convictions. They are quick to share love and support with any patient, no matter what spiritual orientation he or she may have. The spiritual/emotional program is optional but very beneficial for those who partake, no matter what religious orientation they may have.

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Issels Treatment Home Care Program

Depending on your response to the treatment your attending physician will prescribe the 3-month home care program, which may amount up to USD 2,000 - 3,000. Payment can be made by credit card. It is advisable to bring travelers checks for unforeseen expenses.

>>>For additional information on Treatment and Costs please click here or call 1.888.447.7357.

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Home Therapy Program and Follow-up

After your initial treatment at the Issels Treatment Center, we encourage you to come back to the hospital for follow-up visits. It has been our experience that the patients who return periodically tend to recover faster and have better long lasting results. Follow-up visits are the most effective way for us to make any modifications to your home therapy program and for you to clarify any part of the treatment with your doctor.

Your health is important to us and to circumvent any financial difficulty, we offer you a follow-up program at no additional cost. The follow-up program consists of ten visits over a five year period to The Issels Center, one every six months after your initial in-patient program.

Each visit includes:

• One consultation with your physician.
• Review of your medical history.
• Lodging for one night at the hospital.
• Three meals for patient and companion.
• Free round-trip shuttle from the San Diego airport to the Issels Treatment Center for the patient and companion.

>>>For additional information on Treatment and Costs please click here or call 1.888.447.7357.

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The Issels Treatment Rationale

The rationale of the comprehensive Issels Treatment strategy applies to all types and stages of cancer.

In cancer patients the body's regulatory, repair and defense mechanisms fail to prevent formation of a cancerous tumor. This failure is called by some researchers a "regulatory freeze" or "tolerance" which is due to a combination of causal factors that vary from one individual patient to the other. In each cancer patient, however, this "regulatory freeze" has led to an internal terrain, a "soil," that promotes the development and multiplication of cancer cells.

The comprehensive immunotherapy is designed to break through this "regulatory freeze". It is a unique blend of treatment modalities that complement and enhance each other in an effort to restore the body's regulatory, repair and defense systems, of which the immune system is one important part. In general terms, some of these treatments work on the levels of the biochemical defense and help cancer cells to undergo differentiation as encoded in the genes that cause them to die through programmed cell death (called apoptosis). Other treatment modalities contribute to tumor remissions through working mechanisms on the levels of cell-mediated and humoral immunities.

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The Approach

Removing the Causes

• Toxic exposures are eliminated or avoided (home, occupation, general environment).
• Foci of chronic infection are removed.
• Emotional stress is addressed.
• Damaging and devitalizing nutrition/lifestyle are discontinued.

Repairing Secondary Damages

• Blockades in the body matrix (all solid, semisolid, and fluid connective tissues) are opened through healing inflammation brought about by Coley's mixed bacterial vaccine as well as the nutritional immunotherapy.
• Wound healing and tissue integrity are accelerated by nutritional immunotherapy, vaccines, blood oxygenation and ozonation, as well as ultraviolet blood irradiation.
• Cellular metabolism, tissue and organ function are aided by glandulars, botanicals, and biologicals (materials normally found in the healthy body).

Reducing Disease Burden

• Focal infections of the head and neck are identified and eliminated to liberate the immune system, tissues, organs, and specialized cells from their systemic poisons.
• Issels vaccine (made from the patient's own blood and serum) alerts the body to intracellular "stealth microbes" (mycoplasmas and similar forms), and exposes cancer cells to the immune system by degrading their protective mechanisms.
• Urea and creatine (Danopoulos), in certain cases, may lead to tumor regressions by helping the immune system to penetrate tumor shields.
• Blood oxygenation and ozonation contributes to immunity, wound healing, and cellular function, as well as potentiating many other directly anti-disease modalities.
• Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation or Photoluminescence Therapy is intravenously applied ultraviolet energy. Dr. Issels has used ultraviolet blood irradiation therapy with all of his cancer patients. Due to its profound photochemical, biochemical and physiological effects it has been of great value in a wide variety of diseases.
• Ultraviolet blood irradiation has an enormous immune boosting effect. It has been shown to inactivate viruses, bacteria and stealth pathogens (cell wall deficient microorganisms such as mycoplasma). It modulates the immune response by changing the antigenic structure in blood cells and increases venous oxygen in patients with depressed oxygen values. It has rapid detoxifying effects and a regulatory influence on the autonomic nervous system. It has enhanced immunobiological cancer treatment for over 50 years.
• Coley's vaccine activates the innate immunities (the unprogrammed basic immune system we are born with) causing production of interferons, interleukins, tumor necrosis factor, colony stimulating factors leading to immune cell formation, and many other potent disease fighters.
• Nutritional Immunotherapy has historically been observed to lead to cures of infectious diseases and cancers, as well as potentiating other anti-disease treatments mentioned here.
• Standard treatments are used briefly and sparingly in certain cases when indicated to reduce the amount of disease through surgery, through chemotherapy (which is a chemical knife), or through radiation (which is also a surgery analog).

Balancing Systems

• Nutritional Immunotherapy is aimed at improving cellular, tissue, structural, and organ functions through elimination of trapped intracellular water, proteins, and toxins, and by providing materials to rebuild damaged and deficient systems.
• Probiotics are employed to restore the health-promoting and disease-fighting friendly microbes found in healthy people.
• Glandulars, botanicals, biologicals, enzymes and specific nutrients support normal defense, and immune functions until the body is able to take over on its own.

Restoring Immunities

• Issels autologous vaccine is a powerful help to the suppressed immune system to fight disease and become aware of and vanquish chronic microbial infections (which can be visualized by legitimate dark field microscopy), frequently leading to resolution not only of malignant cells and tumors, but also of various immune disorders.
• Coley's vaccine awakens the primal (innate) immune system, which is believed by most experts to be the explanation for most spontaneous disappearances of cancer.
• Nutritional Immunotherapy has been observed to lead to powerful immune responses against infectious and malignant diseases, and contributes to the benefits achieved by the vaccines of Issels and Coley.

Activating All Defenses and Immunities

• Issels autologous vaccine works in a very complex way on the levels of cell-mediated and humoral immunity fighting malignancies and other immune disorders. Clinical research suggests that the vaccine stimulates the formation and activation of T-helper cells, macrophages and natural killer cells, and as an antigenic fraction of autologous mycoplasma and mycoplasma-like organisms, it binds mycoplasma-specific antigens. It helps the immune system and defense mechanisms to recognize even infections, which are hidden inside erythrocytes (red oxygen-carrying cells) and other cells.
• Coley's vaccine calls forth the powerful basic immunities throughout every tissue and fluid in the body, leading to powerful anti-disease effects.
• Extracorporeal photopheresis and dendritic cell vaccine enhance specific cancer fighting properties.
• Nutritional Immunotherapy sensitizes the defense and immune systems enabling them to recognize infections and malignant cells.

>>>For additional information on Treatment and Costs please click here or call 1.888.447.7357.

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The Core Treatments

The Issels vaccine and biologicals work in a very complex way on the levels of cellular and humoral immunities. These are individualized preparations from the patient's own blood and body fluids that represent his/her own unique internal environment. The preparations follow procedures that favor the development of antigenic peptides and other immunogenic compounds, which help restore the body's cancer fighting mechanisms. During more than 40 years of clinical administration, the autologous vaccine has contributed to the retardation, cessation and remission of tumor growth in a variety of cancers. The autologous vaccine also corrects chronic infections by stealth microbes (intracellular parasitic microbial forms such as mycoplasmas) leading to the resolution of painful chronic inflammations in joints, healing of chronic lesions and sores, and much more.

Coley's mixed bacterial vaccine activates the innate immune system, raising the count of immune and tissue-repairing cells while, at the same time, triggering release by the body of natural interferons, interleukins, tumor necrosis factor, and other anti-disease and pro-healing agents. Recently, this vaccine has attracted the attention of a growing number of experts at universities and pharmaceutical firms who consider it to be the most powerful single anti-cancer agent ever developed. While its use in the Americas was abandoned with the birth of chemotherapy in the 1940’s, Dr. Issels continued to employ it for more than 40 years of successful treatment of advanced cancers, degenerative, and chronic diseases.

Extracorporeal photopheresis (FDA-approved for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma due to research by Richard L. Edelson, Yale University,) with the dendritic cell vaccine, works in the following way:

Via the photopheresis apparatus pathogens and sick (disease-promoting) dendritic cells can be destroyed through exposure to ultraviolet light, which also has an enormous immune-boosting effect.

During this procedure monocytes can be separated from the blood, mechanically converted into young, healthy dendritic cells, separately cultured to maturity, and re-infunded into the patient's vein to replace the sick dendritic cells.

Dendritic cells are responsible for identifying pathogens (viruses, fungi, bacteria, malignant cells) and presenting their identifying markers, antigens, to specific T lymphocytes that then multiply and attack the disease. They are also capable of identifying normal dying cells and to present their antigens to different T cells that tell the immune system not to attack its own tissues.

Photopheresis mechanically induces monocytes to transform into dendritic cells, thereby greatly increasing their numbers. By centrifuging blood in a cell separator and passing the white cells through the ultraviolet light chamber, millions of monocytes are converted into dendritic cells. By culturing them outside the body with growth factors, these cells can learn to ingest and process pathogens that formerly eluded the immune system. Thus, when they are re-introduced to the body, they awaken sleeping immunities. At the same time, in the case of rejection or autoimmunity, the newly converted dendritic cells are able to call off T-cell attacks against a transplanted organ or the patient's own tissues.

Nutritional Immunotherapy (organic food, antioxidants, nutraceuticals, tissue salts, etc.) corrects cellular salt and water retention and nutrient deficiency thereby restoring the tissue functions of signaling to the immune system, healing of wounds, resistance of encroaching disease, and more. In combination with oxidative, enzymatic, and photoluminescence therapy as well as glandular extracts, it has contributed to resolution of infections, remission of tumors, and correction of degenerative and chronic diseases. As part of the Issels Treatment, it potentiates the Issels and Coley vaccines, as well as the dendritic cell vaccines.

Elimination of focal infections, especially those of the jaws and tonsils. Long-term infections sometimes reside in tissues too damaged to respond or allow the immune system to penetrate. Removal of focal infections, the source of powerful circulating toxins, liberates the immune system to find, and respond to, life-threatening malignant and degenerative diseases as well as chronic conditions.

Standard measures, when needed, are used for the purpose of reducing the amount of diseased tissue in order to give the body a chance to restore itself and take over the fight. Surgery, and its cousins radiation and chemotherapy, are focused on the cancerous cells and tumors and do not correct the causes and preconditions for their growth.

 

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