Lisa Attias has her own story of a personal journey to recovery from metastatic melanoma.
In the past, of the choices open to new diagnoses, she has tried the category Other Treatments (see the Cancer Research UK treatment summary below) and this may have helped delay the initial progress of her melanoma.
She has subsequently undergone Surgery for metastases in her lymph glands.
When she was diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma, including a small tumour on her liver, she was referred to oncology for the category of treatment Immunotherapy/Monoclonal Antibodies. As a broad spectrum therapy, this was not personalised to her particular circumstances and was not successful.
She then took an opportunity to join an Immunotherapy drug trial run by The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, the world's first hospital dedicated to cancer diagnosis, treatment, research and education. All patients on the trial were given the same medication and, after several week of some very uncomfortable side effects, the metastases continued to increase in size, though more slowly.
Lisa decided to do more research into Immunotherapy approaches because she felt that she was only just surviving, rather than recovering.
On the website Yes To Life, the UK’s integrative cancer care charity, Lisa found a reference to Dendritic Cell Vaccines, a category of personalised Immunotherapy. In this context, “vaccines” is a misnomer; the vaccine doesn’t prevent cancer, it treats it.
As Cancer Research UK puts it:
“Vaccines are a type of immunotherapy. Unlike vaccines to protect us from disease, cancer treatment vaccines are for people who already have cancer. Cancer vaccines help your body’s immune system recognise and attack cancer cells. Some take a person's own immune cells and supercharge them to recognise an individual's own cancer. The cells are then infused back in to the body to destroy cancer cells. Research in this area is at an early stage. So vaccines are mainly available as part of clinical trials.”
The last sentence is important. In the UK’s NHS (National Health Service), Dendritic Cell Therapy is not yet available.
More importantly, the clinic in Germany that was featured provided a personalised, patient-centred approach which is very uncommon in current UK oncology treatments.
More personalised treatment is one of the success stories of Immunotherapy.
It offers the chance of a full recovery for some patients who previously had few options and for those who do not react to broad spectrum, one-size-fits-all treatments. For others, it helps control their cancer.
There are a number of different immunotherapies being trialled and refined, with the hope of offering them eventually as treatments.
In Germany (and Spain, Mexico, Switzerland and New York State), this therapy is available now.
Dr Thomas Neßelhut’s approach is to analyse a patient’s situation using scans, previous medical data, detailed personal interviews by phone and in person, immunological markers and innovative blood tests.
The resulting Immuno Profile also indicates how much inflammation is present and some over-the-counter medicines are used to reduce inflammation in novel ways. Inflammation can be present with cancer, it has a negative effect and, for Dendritic Cell Vaccines to work effectively, should be minimised.
The resulting data, including Lisa’s Immuno Profile, was used to devise a personalised treatment programme for Lisa involving Dendritic Cell Vaccines, and some other elements of Immunotherapy such as Monoclonal Antibodies (at 1/10,000th of the normal dose), Checkpoint Inhibitors and Cytokines.
Lisa’s white blood cells were captured initially using leukapheresis and stored in a clinical freezer for use over a set of treatments, weeks apart. For each treatment cycle, her cells are primed and transformed into dendritic cells before injecting them back into her bloodstream.
An average of four treatment cycles are usually necessary for a full recovery.
Dendritic cells help the immune system recognise and attack abnormal cells, such as cancer cells. The vaccine then stimulates the immune system to identify and destroy the cancer.
Dr Neßelhut has a very successful track record in treating prostate cancer and melanoma, in particular, but he has had success with other cancers.
He also emanates a wonderful healing aura and his communication with those undergoing treatment, and their relatives, is brilliant. The clinical staff are positive and helpful and the whole approach is that of recovery.
The turning point came in her first visit when Dr Neßelhut turned to Lisa after going through all the markers on her Immuno Profile and said: “You know, Lisa, this is going to work!”.
I hope this short account gives other cancer sufferers some guidance and offers them the benefits of Lisa’s experience.
Of course this has a cost attached to it. We are asking for contributions on JustGiving to help us afford the £35,000 costs and we are eternally grateful for those who have already made donations.
Lisa is launching her own website soon to describe her experiences more fully. Her blog is here.
#dendriticcells #immunotherapy #melanoma