The Issels Foundation

In 1987 the Issels Foundation was established by llse Marie lssels, whose late husband Josef M. Issels, M.D., was a world renowned leader in the development of a holistic, integrative therapeutic system for the treatment of patients with advanced cancers that had failed to respond to standard approaches. In 1951, Dr. Issels founded the first hospital specializing in the treatment of conventionally "incurable" cancer patients, subsequently treating more than 15,000 patients for months at a time. Over decades, he demonstrated that conventional anticancer treatments could be successfully combined with unconventional treatments to restore health in even far advanced cases. His use of immunobiological therapies, including cancer vaccines, allowed coherent treatment of the cancer patient as a whole person, body and mind, above and beyond efforts to manage the cancer itself. This treatment program became known as the Issels Treatment®.