Josef Issels

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Josef Issels (November 21, 1907 - February 11, 1998) was a German physician and known for having developed an alternative cancer therapy regimen, the Issels treatment, that caused a great amount of controversy among medical professionals. He claimed to cure cancer patients who had otherwise been declared incurable by conventional cancer treatments.

As a young doctor Josef Issels made a name for himself by operating in makeshift conditions on, and healing, a female passenger on a boat that had left South Africa. Her previous doctor had told her that she had a terminal condition, and she had snuck onto the boat in the hopes of reaching her relatives before she died. Issels also, at the behest of the nun who was the administrator at the hospital where he worked, joined the SS; at the time, physicians were expected to join the SS. After Kristallnacht, he asked to leave the SS, for religious and philosophical reasons. During the war, where he served as a medic, he was given punitive assignments in retaliation for his leaving the SS. After the war, he had to see how his son died, in part because the occupying soldiers would not give him penicillin with which to treat his son.

Issels believed that cancer was caused by the weakening of the human immune system and hence had to be cured by strengthening it again. However, he did not dispute the importance of conventional cancer therapies like surgery and chemotherapy, and did in fact use them when treating his patients. Issels did not advocate a panacea-like new therapy, but rather prescribed various neglected, forgotten, or non-mainstream treatments, such as the Coley Vaccine pioneered by William Coley, hyperthermia, where Manfred von Ardenne researched its effectiveness in cancer.

Issels opened his Ringberg Clinic in Bavaria in 1951. As the clinic achieved greater fame, patients from around the world began to seek his treatment. However, his practice was not appreciated by other doctors, specifically the Bavarian Medical Council, which charged Issels with fraud and manslaughter. After a four year legal battle, Issels' convictions on all charges were overturned, and his clinic was relicensed. Issels centers and clinics continue to treat cancer patients with all types and stages of cancer both in and out of the United States.

Among his illustrious patients were Jamaican reggae legend, Bob Marley, and British Olympic medaillist, Lillian Board, who both entered his Rottach-Egern clinic in order to get Issels' cancer treatment. Nevertheless both died soon after since the therapy could not fulfill the hopes of a cure. Issels died of pneumonia at the age of 90.

Issels wrote a number of books, including a biography "My fight against Cancer," a book on his understanding of cancer, and sundry scientific articles.

[edit] Bibliography

Unproven methods of cancer management. Issels combination therapy. CA Cancer J Clin. 1972 Mai-Juni;22(3):188-91
Josef Issels MD (February 2005). Cancer: A Second Opinion: A Look at Understanding, Controlling, and Curing Cancer. Square One Publishers. ISBN 075700279X.
Josef Issels MD (1981). Mein Kampf gegen den Krebs: Erinnerungen eines Arztes. C. Bertelsmann. ISBN 3570047369.
Thomas, Gordon. Cancer Doctor: The Biography of Josef Issels, M.D. ISBN 1-893302-18-0
Hildenbrand G, An appraisal of the life and work of Dr. Josef Maria Issels 1907-1997,J Altern Complement Med. 1998 4(2):137-40