Tag Archives: Chronic Cancer

Alternative Cancer Treatment, Immunotherapy for Cancer, Uncategorized

Immunotherapy Advances May Now Help Patients with Reoccurring Multiple Myeloma

Immunotherapy Can Expand Options for Those With Limited Cancer Treatment Options
Immunotherapy Can Expand Options for Those With Limited Cancer Treatment Options

One of the benefits of immunotherapy for cancer is that these treatments often have positive results where others have failed. Results of two recent studies show that immunotherapy has real possibilities for treating multiple myeloma.

What Is Multiple Myeloma?

Multiple myeloma is the second-most diagnosed form of blood cancer, just behind non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In patients with multiple myeloma, infection-fighting plasma cells grow out of control, causing bone tumors and chronic infections.

Immunotherapy for Cancer: A Promising Treatment for Multiple Myeloma?

In 2017, a research team from Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania conducted two separate studies involving patients with multiple myeloma that had proven resistant to other therapies.

Patients in the first study received a single dose of chemotherapy before being infused with CART-BCMA, a specific form of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy developed by Penn researchers in collaboration with Novartis. Results indicated that 64 percent of the group had a positive response.

In the second study, sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, patients received an experimental monoclonal antibody known as GSK2857916. The drug specifically targets delivery of a chemotherapy drug directly to cancer cells. Overall response rate was 60 percent, with more than half the responding patients experiencing a greater than 90 percent reduction in myeloma protein levels.

Both treatments target BCMA, which is a protein expressed by multiple myeloma cells.

Issels®: The Leader in Immunotherapy for Cancer

Our non-toxic, individually developed immunotherapy programs boost your body’s immune system and its natural defense mechanisms. Contact us for more information about our success treating patients with advanced cancer that has resisted other forms of therapy.

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.