DENDRITIC CELL THERAPY
The immune system helps people to stay healthy by recognising bacteria and viruses as well as cancer cells as noxious and by killing these. It has been know for quite some time that for the recognition of foreign materials (antigens) the body needs antigen presenting cells. These antigen presenting cells alert the immune system to the intruder and activate further immune cells that fight the antigen by various means.
At Boost IV we offer medical bookings for Dendritic Cell Therapy that will be conducted in Germany by a medical Clinic who specialises in this therapy option. Our medical team will work out if a client is suitable for treatment and organise all of the Booking details for our clients.
Dendritic Cell Therapy - Who Benefits? For most types of cancer, however, there exist standard treatments which have been developed over decades. Therefore, we recommend to make use of these treatments and supplement them with immune therapy, since it is known that tumor cells damaged by chemotherapy or radiation are much easier to destroy with immune cells than undamaged tumor cells.
Treatment with dendritic cells is also often used when conventional therapies have not been successful. This was demonstrated, for example, in the case of kidney carcinoma and malignant melanoma. Vaccination with dendritic cells is most promising, however, when only small numbers of tumor cells are present. Today we know that the immune system of patients with a low tumor mass often still functions much more efficiently than that of patients with a high tumor load. Just as with chemotherapy and radiation, the earlier dendritic cell therapy is begun, the more successful it is.
Immunotherapy with dendritic cells
The immune system helps people to stay healthy by recognizing bacteria and viruses as well as cancer cells as noxious and by killing these. It has been know for quite some time that for the recognition of foreign materials (antigens) the body needs antigen presenting cells. These antigen presenting cells alert the immune system to the intruder and activate further immune cells that fight the antigen by various means.
Side Effects
Immunotherapies like all other drugs have side effects. Even though there is only little data, as the therapies are still relatively new and it is difficult to make exact prediction about side effects, our increasing clinical experience and the growing number of clinical trials have given us an initial picture of possible side effects.
Flu-like symptoms like fever, rigors, tiredness as well as swelling and itching at the injection side are common side effects. These usually go away by themselves quickly and rarely need treatment or can be treated with fever lowering drugs, anti-allergy and anti-pain medications without problems.
Additional side effects can depend on the type and position of the tumor. Other side effects we or other groups observed include: Nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, reactivation of an autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis, low platelets, anemia as well as undesirable side effects like those that can be encountered after any injection or infusion.
Altogether our experience shows that the common side effects occur in the days immediately after the injection.
This list of possible side effects on this website does not claim to be complete and there may be possible unknown side effects.
During the face to face consultation you should discuss the type and duration of possible general and individual side effects in relation to the desired therapeutic effects.
Contra-indications
There is no data on treatment with dendritic cells during pregnancy; this therefore is an absolute contraindication. If the full blood count shows very low counts of monocytes it may be impossible to isolate them from the blood stream. Other diseases like autoimmune conditions can be contra-indications but need to be discussed on and individual basis during a face to face consultation.
This list may also be incomplete.
Duration of therapy
The treatment usually starts of with one Injection, this is done over a 7 day period while in Germany. Day one bloods are drawn / IV therapy is provided. Bloods will be back in 5-7 days to be re administered. On day of administration you will be given an IV therapy along with the Dendritic cells that are injected back into the body. You will need 2 days to rest after the treatment.
In some cases the treatment may be repeated again in 6 to 12 months, this will be discussed once the first treatment is done.