Metabolic Tumor Therapy
Targeting metabolism for cancer therapy
Cancer modifies the metabolism of cells and their surrounding milieu. A new and much promised approach in cancer research starts with so-called "metabolic tumor therapy".
The term "tumor metabolome" describes the characteristic metabolic phenotype of tumor cells. Phenotype summarizes the appearance in genetics the set of all characteristics of an organism. The approach of metabolomics cancer therapy presupposes that different tissues with different basic metabolism in general shift - during tumorigenesis - to the same metabolic phenotype.
The recent groundbreaking research of metabolomics made possible a deeper investigation into the metabolism of cancer and a better understanding of how cancer cells use glycolysis. Because the patient's immune response consists of complex interactions between immune cell subtypes, which are controlled by a large number of regulatory cells and hampers by tumor-related interference
Metabolomic research will enable us to discover the pathways cancer uses and will let us find new therapeutic interventions in fighting different types of cancer.
The metabolomic approach may also provide clues to personalized cancer treatments: Tumor cells constantly produce energy and building blocks for their reproduction. To rob cancer of this possibility we, at the Hyperthermia Centre in Hannover, use the metabolic cancer-therapy successfully to block the most important signaling pathways and substances that the tumor needs to grow.
With the understanding of the final research we also use the metabolic cancer-therapy in our day-clinic in combination with Hyperthermia and IPT to even make it more effective. Our form of therapy also includes target immunotherapy, citostic and citostatic substances. The knowledge of the metabolic changes in the tumor cells leads us to a sustainable form of targeted cancer therapy. The survival of cancer cells under nutrient- and oxygen-poor conditions can effectively be stopped.
Why is oxygen so important in the fight against cancer?
Cancer cells can grow particularly well in oxygen-poor tissues. In contrast to healthy cells, they even manage without oxygen at all. Our therapies make use of this effect while treating patients with intensive ozone therapy.
The success of the treatment is closely related to the oxygen supply to the organism: the more oxygen is in the tissues, the worse cancer can develop and the more effectively it can be treated.
Our experience has shown, that combination of hyperthermia, IPT and ozone treatment is extremely effective and successful, especially in the case of severe metastasis.
IPT - the gentle chemotherapy
Insulin potentiated therapy (IPT) is considered to be an alternative to chemotherapy with few side effects, it kills cancer cells or chronically diseased tissue without undesirable and harmful side effects.
Cancer cells have up to 20 times more receptors for insulin (the body's own hormone that regulates blood sugar) on their cell surface than healthy cells. Therefore cancer cells are fixated on sugar utilization. The IPT takes advantage of the cancer cells' greed for sugar by lowering the blood sugar by administering insulin before the treatment.
Creating a "sugar crisis"
In this "sugar crisis", the cancer cells open their channels for sugar. And now a significantly lower dose of chemotherapy is given to the patient and shows to be enough to damage or eliminate the cancer cells. At the same time, no or only minor side effects are caused with a more effective specific cancer-killing effect.