Advanced Therapies
The therapeutic rationale of the Issels Medical Center is to administer the most comprehensive, effective and least toxic or invasive treatments possible to enable true healing. All treatments are research-based. They are integrated into a comprehensive treatment system.
Our therapies may include, but are not limited to, the following:
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Aglycon Ginsenoside
Aglycon Ginsenosides are natural products of ginseng. Research studies suggest that these products have anti-cancer properties.
Careseng belongs to this group of compounds. It has been shown to impede the growth of new blood vessels of cancer tumors and to induce cancer cell death.
At the 2003 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Dr. Willia Jia, lead researcher of a group of scientists of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, reported on the anti-cancer effects of Careseng.(1)
Tests on cultured breast, prostate, lung, pancreatic and brain cancer cell lines showed that lower concentrations arrested differentiation of the cancer cells and higher concentrations caused cell death.
Furthermore, when Careseng was combined with chemotherapy, such as Taxol, Mitoxantrone and Cisplatin, the effectiveness of the chemotherapy was enhanced.
Jia W, Yan H, Bu X, Liu G, "AntiCancer pharmacology of careseng, a natural product of ginseng"., Proc Am Soc Clin Oncol 22: page 888, 2003 (abstr 3571). Univ. of Brit. Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
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Mistletoe
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicin in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute(2) in Bethesda, Maryland, conduct a research study on Mistletoe. Both institutions are components of the National Institutes of Health, the Nation’s lead medical research agency. The purpose of this research study is to find out whether an extract from the European mistletoe plant, along with the chemotherapy drug gemcitabine, can help treat people with cancer of the breast, colon, lung and pancreas.
European mistletoe injections have been used in Europe for decades. Extracts of mistletoe have been shown to kill cancer cells in the laboratory and to stimulate the immune system.(2)
European mistletoe is available in the US in the form of homeopathy, not to treat a specific disease, but to boost the immune system.
Reference:
Artemisinin
Artemisinin is an extract from the plant Artemisia Annua L (sweet wormwood, also known as the Chinese herb Qinghao).
Recent research by the scientists Lai H. and Singh N., from the University of Washington in Seattle has shown that Artemisinin has anti-cancer properties.(3) According to their studies Artemisinin is cytotoxic to 55 cancer cell lines, most notably to cells from leukemia, colon, lung, breast, ovarian and prostate cancer as well as from fibrosarcomas. It has also been shown that Artemisinin killed cancers that were traditionally resistant to chemotherapy.
H.Lai and NP Singh, "Selective Cancer Cell Cytoxicity from Exposure in Dihydroartemisinin and Holotransferrin", Cancer Letters, 91:41-46, 1995.
Efferth et al, "Anti-Malaria Drug is Also active against cancer", Int'l Journal of Oncology, 18;767-773,2001.
NP Singh and H Lai, "Selective toxicity of dihydroartemisinin and holotransferrin toward human breast cancer cells." Life Sciences, 70:49-56,2001. Sadava, D et al, Transferrin overcomes drug resistance to artemisinin in human small cell lung carcinoma cells, Cancer Letter, 179,151-156, 2002.
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Ascorbate
The benefits of Ascorbate (vitamin C) in the treatment of various conditions, including cancer, have been known since the 1970s, due to the research of Nobel price laureate Linus Pauling.
In 2006, researchers at the US-National Institutes of Health, led by Sebastian J. Padayatty, found high concentrations of vitamin C given intravenously to be toxic to cancer cells, but not to healthy cells.
In 2005, another group of researchers at the US National Institutes of Health, led by M. Levine, came to the same conclusion.(4)
In the August 4–8, 2008 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researcher and co-author of the study, Mark Levine, M.D., chief of the US National Institutes of Health’s Molecular and Clinical Nutritional Section, found that intravenous vitamin C produced hydrogen peroxide, which proceeded to reduce cancerous tumors in mice by 43 to 51 %. The mice had ovarian, pancreatic and brain cancer. According to the researchers it is possible to intravenously boost levels of vitamin C in humans to the levels used in the mice. The results also indicate that at pharmacologic levels, vitamin C elicits hydrogen peroxide-dependent cytotoxicity only toward cancer cells, leaving normal cells unscathed. [Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2008.]
The high concentrations of vitamin C in the blood needed to kill cancer cells cannot be achieved orally, but only by intravenous infusions.
At the Issels Medical Center we have developed a protocol that strives for optimal effectiveness. We integrate this protocol of intravenous vitamin C therapy into our comprehensive treatment program and administer it to qualified patients after the G6PD test.
Reference:
(4) Pharmacologic ascorbic acid concentrations selectively kill cancer cells: action as a pro-drug to deliver hydrogen peroxide to tissues.
Chen Q, Espey MG, Krishna MC, Mitchell JB, Corpe CP, Buettner GR, Shacter E, Levine M.
Molecular and Clinical Nutrition Section, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Human pharmacokinetics data indicate that i.v. ascorbic acid (ascorbate) in pharmacologic concentrations could have an unanticipated role in cancer treatment. Our goals here were to test whether ascorbate killed cancer cells selectively, and if so, to determine mechanisms, using clinically relevant conditions. Cell death in 10 cancer and 4 normal cell types was measured by using 1-h exposures. Normal cells were unaffected by 20 mM ascorbate, whereas 5 cancer lines had EC(50) values of <4 mM, a concentration easily achievable i.v. Human lymphoma cells were studied in detail because of their sensitivity to ascorbate (EC(50) of 0.5 mM) and suitability for addressing mechanisms. Extracellular but not intracellular ascorbate mediated cell death, which occurred by apoptosis and pyknosis/necrosis. Cell death was independent of metal chelators and absolutely dependent on H(2)O(2) formation. Cell death from H(2)O(2) added to cells was identical to that found when H(2)O(2) was generated by ascorbate treatment. H(2)O(2) generation was dependent on ascorbate concentration, incubation time, and the presence of 0.5-10% serum, and displayed a linear relationship with ascorbate radical formation. Although ascorbate addition to medium generated H(2)O(2), ascorbate addition to blood generated no detectable H(2)O(2) and only trace detectable ascorbate radical. Taken together, these data indicate that ascorbate at concentrations achieved only by i.v. administration may be a pro-drug for formation of H(2)O(2), and that blood can be a delivery system of the pro-drug to tissues. These findings give plausibility to i.v. ascorbic acid in cancer treatment, and have unexpected implications for treatment of infections where H(2)O(2) may be beneficial.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Sep 20;102(38):13604-9. Epub 2005 Sep 12.
PMID: 16157892 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] [Link to the Article]
At the Issels Medical Center various natural preparations are administered according to the patients’ individual condition. These therapies are always integrated into the comprehensive treatment program to enhance the proper functioning of all the defense mechanisms as well as the elimination of the toxins from the break down of cancer cells.
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.
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