Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy refers to the treatment of the body's immune system. This is a very complex system comprising the body as a whole. It is not only the first line of defense against invaders, but also protects us against a variety of diseases, such as chronic degenerative diseases and cancer.
Cancer patients' bodies don't know they are sick.
In cancer patients the body's regulatory, repair and defense mechanisms fail to prevent formation of a cancerous tumor. They tolerate it. This “tolerance”, also called “regulatory freeze”, is due to a combination of causal factors that vary from one individual patient to the other and lead to an internal environment, a “soil”, that promotes cancer growth.
The comprehensive immunotherapy administered at the Issels Medical Center aims to break through this "tolerance". It is a unique blend of non-toxic 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 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 work on the levels of cell-mediated and humoral immunities.
The treatment program at the Issels Medical Center is based on the comprehensive immunotherapy concept developed by Josef M. Issels MD, which has a fifty-year history in the treatment of cancer.
Issels Medical Center treatment protocols for cancer and other immune disorders are customized to suit each individual patient's specific needs.
The Issels Treatment strategy includes standard treatments when indicated.
"Immunotherapy may be one of the only ways left to deal with cancer. We've gone as far as we can with chemotherapy", says oncologist Herman Kattlove, an editor for the American Cancer Society. "With few new drugs coming out," he says, "chemotherapy is sort of a dead area"… New Weapon in Cancer War. The Wall Street Journal. May 23, 2003: B1.
* 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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