Bladder Cancer
Bladder cancer is the most frequent malignant tumor of the urinary tract. The most common type of bladder cancer is transitional cell carcinoma, which accounts for 90% of bladder cancers.
Other types of bladder cancers include:
- squamous cell carcinoma,
- adenocarcinoma, and
- papillary.
It is believed that it takes many years for gradual change in bladder cells to produce bladder cancer.
One of the most preventable risk factors for bladder cancer is tobacco smoking. Cigarette smoking is responsible for one third of all cancer deaths. Cancer-causing chemicals in tobacco smoke are absorbed from the lungs and get into the blood. From the blood, they are filtered by the kidneys and collected in the urine. These chemicals damage the cells that line the inside of the bladder and increase the risk of cancer.
Bladder cancer will affect over 50,000 people this year. Of these individuals, 65 to 75 percent will be men. Bladder cancer is the fourth most common cancer in men and one of the top eight cancers for women. According to the National Cancer Institute, bladder cancer is more prevalent in the westernized countries, like the United States, France and Canada.
Currently, for patients diagnosed with localized disease, the 5-year relative survival rate is 95%. For patients whose cancer is regional, the 5-year survival rate drops to 50%. Once bladder cancer has spread to other organs, the 5-year survival rates drop to 6%.
Factors such as --
- size of the tumor,
- number of tumors,
- time of recurrence,
- grade,
- histology, and
- detection of normal cell antigens
all have some bearing on prognosis.
However, even if standard treatments have reached their limits, patients suffering from bladder cancer have treatment options.*
At the Issels Medical Center we have integrated advanced, research-based alternative/complementary and conventional therapies into a comprehensive immunobiological treatment concept that has a 50 year history.
Treatment
The Treatment Program is a comprehensive strategy for bladder cancer of all types and stages.*
It is a two-pronged attack and consists of:
- Non-toxic Immunobiological Treatments designed to attack the cancer and at the same time restore the natural mechanisms of regulation, repair and defense.
- Standard Treatments aimed at the removal or reduction of the cancerous cells and tumors, when indicated and possible.
Each treatment program is specifically designed to meet the individual patient's needs and consists of components that complement one another.
>>> For ADDITIONAL INFORMATION on Treatment and Costs please click here or call 1.888.374.7735
Rationale
In bladder cancer patients, as in all cancer patients, the body's regulatory, repair and immune 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.
The comprehensive immunobiological treatment offered at the Issels Medical Center aims to break through the "regulatory freeze". It is a unique blend of treatment modalities that complement and enhance one another in an effort to attack the cancer and at the same time restore the body's regulatory, repair and immune systems.
Evidence is growing that in addition to genetic disposition, western lifestyle, nutritional imbalances, hormonal and psychological factors, as well as environmental challenges along with many other immune suppressive factors, play an important part in the development of bladder cancer.
The criteria of diagnosing and staging are the same for every patient suffering from a specific type of cancer. However, even if the histological diagnosis shows the same type of cancerous cell and the staging shows the same state of progression, every patient has his/her own individual cancer as a result from many different combinations of causal factors ranging from inherited constitution and disposition to adapted lifestyle.
Findings of modern research indicate that it is not only the type of cancerous cells that determines the course of the disease, but also the extra-cellular matrix, the medium on which these cells grow, i.e. the internal bodily environment, and the power of the natural defenses against cancer.
Cancer cells develop in every human being, in fact in every vertebrate organism, according to L. Thomas and other researchers. However, not every newly produced cancer cell leads to a tumor, as the body possesses a natural defense system, an immune surveillance according to M. Burnet. An intact immune system and intact regulation of physiological cell death, called apoptosis, protect the organism from the development of a cancerous tumor. Therefore, it is of great importance to restore the natural regulatory, repair and immune mechanisms, as a part of the healing strategy, or as prevention from the outbreak or progression of the disease.
Statistical studies show that the incidence of recurrent cancer can be reduced considerably, if the patient takes action to strengthen the immune system instead of wasting precious time by passively waiting for the next test results.
Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, although having made great strides in their ability to eradicate cancer cells and tumors, are merely aimed at the malignancy and ignore, and sometimes aggravate, the underlying condition, which led to the formation of the tumor in the first place.
Unless the preconditions for the growth of cancerous tumors are corrected, the high risk of disease progression and recurrence remains.
* DISCLAIMER: The extent of the response to treatment varies from patient to patient, even with similar diagnosis as the internal bodily environment is unique to each individual patient.
>>> For ADDITIONAL INFORMATION on Treatment and Costs please click here or call 1.888.374.7735