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Naumka F from Canada, Breast Cancer

We would like to share with you another heart-warming and inspiring story from our clinic! This is Naumka and her husband Dr. Ronald F. from Canada. Naumka was diagnosed with breast cancer 18 months ago. Now, in early January 2020 her “CT scan in Canada reported NO evidence of prior locations of cancer”. We are so happy for her and her family, congratulations!

LETTER TO HALLWANG PRIVATE ONCOLOGY CLINIC

From Hallwang patient Mrs. Naumka Nina F. with chaperoning husband Dr. Ronald F. – January 2020

18 months ago I was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic breast cancer in my country Canada. I was given no hope for recovery by Canadian oncologists. I am pleased to share my true story to encourage others to consider another opportunity for help.

When I was updating my devastating news in August 2018 with my Canadian dentist Dr. Leo Gonzalez he changed my dental appointment into a lengthy personal heartfelt consultation in which he suggested that I consider a private clinic in Germany. He was educated in Germany.

From that time my husband began extensive research and after he spoke twice by phone with Hallwang’s senior oncologist, Dr. Nolting and forwarded my file documentation, we met Dr. Nolting who patiently explained in extensive medical detail the meaning of the diagnosis and of proposed treatments. Everyone at Hallwang clinic since our first moment has been so warmly supportive and encouraging… we have truly become friends.

After the first 5 days in September 2018, my daily blood testing for tumor markers such as CA 15-3 confirmed improvements. When I expressed initially to Dr. Nolting how impressed I was with him, he modestly replied… “I am even more impressed with you.”

Throughout subsequent visits for further assessments and treatments, some of which were changed to different tests and treatments in response to ongoing response reports I met other patients from around the world whose true stories, some with very rare cancers all described being damaged from traditional treatments and being left no hope in their home countries. I now keep in contact with many of them worldwide via email as new friends. In early January 2020 my CT scan in Canada reported NO evidence of prior locations of cancer and I have no symptoms.

I have come to feel that Hallwang clinic is my second home. I wish to express my gratitude to Drs. Nolting, Zarouff, Muhe, Wronka, and every one of the competent comforting nurses and other health professionals on the team … everyone’s expertise and their results are equalled by their sincerity !

In my opinion the entire team deserves a Nobel Peace Prize… bringing not only renewed health to others, but also PEACE. The chefs and all kitchen staff make one’s stay at Hallwang a first-class experience to which we always look forward. My special mention to oncologist Dr. Nora Muhe who touched my heart by holding my hands together emphasizing “you are not sick.” With her unique caring and humble uplifting spirit she even invited me to go shopping. We noted from the beginning and have witnessed ever since starting the truth in Hallwang’s mottos.. “to do as much as possible conservatively and naturally, but as traditionally as necessary” and “you are unique, and your treatment will be unique.” Dr. Nolting prescribes various standard oncology tests and treatments, some FDA-approved that have been continued in Canada.

Nevertheless, the Hallwang clinic truly has its own irreplaceable UNIQUE diagnostic and therapeutic approaches that are not available anywhere else and that are essential to each person’s recovery to detoxify the body, strengthen the immune system, identify complex abnormalities, correct hormone imbalances and more. I also wish to thank my long time best Canadian medical physician Dr. Z. Rona for his big part in my journey before and since including my essential Hallwang clinic help. My honourable mention is for my son Dave whose consistent love and support reinforces my lifelong pride in calling him my son, a wonderful human being.… but it is not only for these reasons that I feel that I am the most fortunate person in the world… it is also that I am married to the best human being, my husband Ron whose tireless medical researching, consultations with physicians, and minute to minute support, encouragement and PARTNERSHIP, along with God’s guidance, has carried me on this successful journey.

I invite others in need to read the Hallwang clinic website and consider if this clinic’s approaches may be appropriate (www.hallwang-clinic.com). Their several oncologists are board-certified (in USA, Germany and the European Society of Medical Oncology) in each of the medical specialities of oncology, haematology and internal medicine.

In addition to their UNIQUE combination of superior educational accomplishments and their close relationships with other world top cancer researchers and specialists, the Hallwang clinic health professionals are first and foremost humane human beings. Another Hallwang motto : “A relationship based on TRUST between doctor and patient is just as important as the treatment itself.”

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Update on Alice from France, Triple-negative breast cancer

We are happy to share a new update from Alice. Alice had a very aggressive relapse of TNBC before she came to our clinic in 2016. Now, in January 2020 more than 2 years in complete remission under immunotherapy! We are SOOO happy for you!

“We came to the Hallwang oncology clinic because Alice was treated in France for a very aggressive relapse of a triple negative breast cancer in April 2016. Unfortunately the chemotherapy treatment given in France gave no result and it was impossible to have an immunotherapy in France either in a clinical trial or directly. After 8 weeks of targeted immunotherapy treatment in Hallwang combined with a chemotherapy in France, Alice has been in a almost complete remission in august 2016. Targeted immunotherapy is continued and Alice is in complete remission at the date of october 2 2019 since 22 months.”

“Nous sommes venus à la clinique d’oncologie Hallwang car Alice était traitée en France pour une récidive très agressive d’un cancer du sein triple négatif en Avril 2016. Malheureusement le traitement de chimiothérapie entrepris en France n’a donné aucun résultat et il était impossible d’entreprendre une immunothérapie en France soit dans un essai clinique soit directement. Après 8 semaines de traitement d’immunothérapie jointe à un vaccin à Hallwang, combiné avec une chimiothérapie en France, Alice s’est trouvée en rémission presque complète en Août 2016. L’immunothérapie et le vaccin sont poursuivis et Alice est en rémission complète au 2 octobre 2019 depuis 22 mois.”

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Case of Excellent Response

Christmas and holiday time means family time. Often, it is the only time of the year everyone can get together in the same place. Nick and his family feared that Christmas 2018 would be the last after being diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer in July 2018 and sepsis with multi organ failure in December 2018. When the cancer spread, he was only offered palliative care. Thanks to his supportive family, friends and especially his wife, Nick came to the Hallwang Clinic early 2019 and started on combined immunotherapy including so-called checkpoint-antibodies with amazing success, allowing him to spend Christmas 2019 again with his family at home. We are so happy for Nick! Read his story here: www.mirror.co.uk

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Head & Neck tumor

“After sending our medical notes and having the first Phone call with Dr Nolting, I knew if anyone could help us he could! He spoke perfect English but way too fast -the passion in his voice to save my husband was astounding, he explained thoroughly over and over until I 100{46e4709d9f8630425b72e0272d214d30fa43d8c3179cf36521bbc34ae5d7f24f} understood the medical Jargon!

On our first of many visits to this tiny place In what felt like the middle of nowhere we were pleasantly surprised at lack of grandeur! This place was homeley, and welcoming the girls were all friendly yet knew every last detail down to a tee and gave a new meaning to the word efficiency. My husband had been told he wouldn’t make Christmas, we were heartbroken vulnerable and naive however that soon changed to positive, informed and hopeful! Results on nicks first scan only 9 weeks into treatment proved we’d made the best decision! Nicks tumors in his liver had totally gone along with his lungs and four out of five bones were all tumor free with the last in his shoulder been greatly reduced in size! – we’re ecstatic! Not only do I feel so grateful my husband will be around to watch our 3 year old twins grow up but I’m grateful we found this quirky little place and we were handled with hope and genuine care. If my husbands results hadn’t have been as amazing as they are I would have still maintained that every single person At the Hallwang boosted his spirits and gave him the lift he needed to keep fighting this truly awful disease- keep doing what your going guys love the Dippers xx”

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Isabelle from France, Triple-negative breast cancer

As you know, triple negative breast cancer is hard to treat and prognosis is often poor. But luckily, new advances have been made in cancer immunotherapy to help people with this diagnosis. Unfortunately, not everybody meets the criteria to enter clinical trials using new immunotherapeutics. We are happy to share Isabelle‘s encouraging experience at our clinic and we are so happy she is doing so well! In France she could only be offered palliative chemo and now she has achieved complete remission after 5 months of combined treatments Congratulations!

Isabelle, France:
“I was diagnosed at age 40 with a stage II triple negative cancer in both breasts, with BRACA mutation. Despite the heavy treatments I received successively (neoadjuvant chemotherapy, mastectomy and lumpectomy, adjuvant chemotherapy, radiotherapy), my cancer continued to progress very rapidly and metastasized to different parts of the body (liver, bones and ganglions). At this stage, I was proposed a palliative chemotherapy to slowdown the evolution of the disease, provided that my body was responsive to it. I had heard of a promising treatment with immunotherapy for triple negative breast cancer. But the only way to obtain this treatment in France was to integrate one of the clinical trials. Unfortunately they were refused because I did not fit the criteria of the studies. Thus, after launching a crowdfunding campaign, I decided to go to Germany in november 2018 for new treatment options. Indeed, I knew a french patient with a diagnosis very close of mine who was successfully treated there. After less than 5 months of targeted immunotherapy and personalised treatment in Hallwang combined with a chemotherapy in France, I am now in complete remission. Youpi !”

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Victoria, Breast cancer

Here an open letter from one of our patients about her experience at our clinic. Vicki, thank you so much for your encouraging and uplifting letter! It is for patients like you that we go all the way and continue our work!

Hello there I have seen some bad press lately about the clinic and just thought I would send a message of thanks and appreciation to all of you. Not only have I had healing from my treatments at Hallwang but I have met some of the most amazing people – Drs, nurses, and office staff. I feel so loved and supported there I think that could be enough to heal someone. I am so blessed to be able to have been given the opportunity for treatment at Hallwang.

I just wanted to say thank you for all you have done for me. When I arrived back in Dec I had so much bone pain I couldn’t stand up straight or take a deep breath. I was weak and needed help to walk a distance. I was thin and had lost a lot of weight. I was doing so poorly the family had flown my kids out to Germany to spend Christmas with me because I wasn’t sure we would have another to spend together. After receiving treatment at Hallwang that has changed. I feel very well. My pain is gone. My weight is back to normal and I am much stronger. I saw my US doctor last week and he said I look better than he has ever seen me look (he has been my doctor for 10 + years). Thank you for putting up with all my crazy philosophies on health and the questioning I do. You are always understanding and open to what I ask and say. I appreciate that so much. There are not many doctors that are as kind and understanding as you (or have such a great sense of humor).

Many doctors are too scared of what others might think to offer treatments that go beyond the conventional “standard of care” Many heroic doctors and scientist in history – that have achieved outstanding things in this world – had to go against the conventions of society and ignore what the ignorant say and continue on with their life’s work. Know you are a hero to me with the work you are doing.

I am sorry to hear of the negative press the clinic has gotten. These are the times when the tough stay strong and show what they are made of.

Looking forward to seeing again you soon!
Victoria

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Update on Alice from France, Triple-negative breast cancer

We came to the Hallwang oncology clinic because Alice was treated in France for a very aggressive relapse of a triple negative breast cancer in April 2016. Unfortunately the chemotherapy treatment given in France gave no result and it was impossible to have an immunotherapy in France either in a clinical trial or directly. After 8 weeks of targeted immunotherapy treatment in Hallwang combined with a chemotherapy in France, Alice has been in a almost complete remission in august 2016. Targeted immunotherapy is continued and Alice is in complete remission at the date of may 6 2019 since 17 months.

Nous sommes venus à la clinique d’oncologie Hallwang car Alice était traitée en France pour une récidive très agressive d’un cancer du sein triple négatif en Avril 2016. Malheureusement le traitement de chimiothérapie entrepris en France n’a donné aucun résultat et il était impossible d’entreprendre une immunothérapie en France soit dans un essai clinique soit directement.

Après 8 semaines de traitement d’immunothérapie jointe à un vaccin à Hallwang, combiné avec une chimiothérapie en France, Alice s’est trouvée en rémission presque complète en Août 2016. L’immunothérapie et le vaccin sont poursuivis et Alice est en rémission complète au 6 mai 2019 depuis 17 mois.

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Update on S. (wants to stay anonymous), breast cancer

In 2016, we posted very encouraging results from one of our breast cancer patients – S. (wants to stay anonymous). She arrived first in June 2016 in our clinic, after having received the devastating diagnosis of left-sided breast cancer with lymph node metastases.

Already in October 2016, a tumor mass could not be identified anymore and S. achieved complete remission. She underwent breast-conserving surgical treatment with axillary lymphadenectomy and continued maintenance immunotherapy including antibody treatment every 3 to 6 months with one day of treatment. Her latest PET-CT-Scan results from last month revealed no evidence of metastasizing or secondary tumor, and S. remains in complete remission status. S. is happy to share the results, and we are so happy for you S.!

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Update on Minkara N., Refractory relapsed stage IV ovarian cancer

*4 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF COMPLETE REMISSION*

We would like to share the wonderful news with you that Minkara, who was diagnosed with refractory relapsed Stage IV ovarian cancer, is now 4 years in complete remission under immunotherapy. Minkara N., was diagnosed with metastatic ovarian cancer, and after surgery she received chemotherapy – Taxol, Avastin, Gemcitabine and Caelyx. Unfortunately, MRI showed persistent pelvic metastasis and so Minkara came to the Hallwang Clinic for further treatment. Initially, in 2013, a transarterial chemoembolization was performed and she received antibody treatment, whereupon remission status was reached. Treatment was escalated to different checkpoints on several occasions together with further specific immunotherapy (tumor tissue was analyzed thoroughly before treatment). Minkara reached complete remission in 2015, and four! years later we are happy to confirm that she is still in complete remission. We are so happy that targeted cancer immunotherapy has been working for you, Minkara!

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Specialized Oncology Clinic

The Hallwang Clinic

The Hallwang Clinic is a specialized oncology clinic and helps patients to navigate in a very difficult situation. In contrast to the so-called „alternative clinics“, the medical team of the Hallwang Clinic consists of board-certified oncologists. This is a basic but major quality criteria. The medical team consists of an innovative interdisciplinary team of board-certified and specialized oncologists, hematologists, internal medicine specialists, naturopaths, specialized psychologists and oncology nurses, working in a collaborative university hospital and university institute network. The board-certified oncologists at the Hallwang Clinic have gained experience at well-known university institutes and university hospitals in Germany and world-wide, including the Center of Integrated Oncology of the University Hospital Cologne and the University Hospital Bonn (Germany), the Dana Farber Cancer Institute of the Harvard Medical School in Boston (USA), the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore (USA), the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (Australia) and other renowned cancer institutes. Furthermore, the specialized medical oncologists are members of the European Society for Medical Oncology, carrying the ESMO certificate of Oncology, and /or are members of the German Society of Hematology and Oncology. Many of the physicians have an intensive research and academic background in cancer medicine, particularly Immuno-Oncology. There is always an oncology team on-site. At the Hallwang Clinic, there is also an outpatient center as well, which is also fully covered by an oncology team. The medical oncology team follows the continuously updated international guidelines for cancer therapies. Nevertheless, at the Hallwang Private Oncology Clinic there is an ability to offer further therapy possibilities for patients who need an individualized therapy approach outside of clinical trials.

At the private oncology clinic “Hallwang Clinic”, the medical staff is indeed looking for the most effective therapy approaches that fit the individual characteristics of the patient’s medical history and condition. In heavily pretreated patients, they discuss targeted therapies based on biomarker analysis leading to genetic targeted therapies and immune therapies. The application of biomarker analysis has developed rapidly in the field of oncology. Immunotherapy is a complex field and not well understood by doctors with no expertise in immunooncology and immunotherapy. Beyond doubt, the field of cancer immunotherapy needs to be in the hands of oncologists and scientific professionals, since there are so many biomarker constellations that need to be considered in the decision making process of whether a patient will benefit from targeted immunotherapy or not.  In triple negative breast cancer for example, the so-called immunotherapies are not yet approved but are achieving very promising results in clinical trials worldwide. As medical and scientific experts, the Hallwang medical team is convinced that certain patients benefit from this immunotherapy, as they have achieved for certain patients at the Hallwang Clinic extraordinary long-term therapy results, which are highly respected by medical experts world-wide. For many years, the so-called PD-L1 expression was used as a predictive marker. But nowadays, one already know more significant predictive markers, e.g. the tumor mutational burden, immune-prediction, among many others. The Hallwang Clinic is one of the first clinics worldwide that started using checkpoint antibody therapies for certain tumor entities. Navigating in a university hospital system, the Hallwang Clinic has access to the most advanced diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. They are open for complementary approaches, but the clear focus is on evidence-based treatment approaches.

The team of Hallwang Clinic

Over the last few years, the team of the Hallwang Clinic have seen that medical doctors at renowned hospitals in Europe and world-wide are willing to continue an immunotherapeutic approach after a successful initialization at the clinic. It is important that these therapies are applied and monitored by a specialized oncology team with a long standing experience in immuno-oncology like the Hallwang Clinic, since these therapies, although in general well-tolerated, can have severe immune related side-effects. Unfortunately, one will realize that most so-called experts are not able and will not be able to gain hands-on experience in the most advanced therapy possibilities due to restrictions and limitations in their home countries. 

The medical team of the Hallwang Private Oncology Clinic is able to make use of the most advanced clinical research achievements worldwide and can discuss in an interdisciplinary team whether a patient who has already exhausted all possible standard line therapies would benefit from such a new treatment approach. In Germany, they have the possibility to use extensive biomarker analysis (Next-Generation Sequencing, Immune-Prediction, Tumor Mutational Burden Analysis, Gene-amplifications-/translocations) for private patients to allow for evaluation of precision-based targeted therapies.

Too many patients face limitations in their home country health system, even though certain treatments have shown to be effective. Patients who would most likely benefit from a precision-based therapy have been denied a precision-based medicine approach, because e.g. the trial has already stopped recruiting, or the patients do not meet all eligibility criteria from the clinical trial, etc.

The Hallwang clinic is no clinical study site. The private clinic “Hallwang Clinic” is too small and the patient population very heterogeneous, so clinical trials are not possible, since obviously, the team of the Hallwang Clinic wants to offer all its patients the best treatment possible, and not based on some criteria they might not meet, but would have to be met in order to be included in a trial. Many patients indeed come to the clinic, because they were not eligible for clinical trials, due to their age, treatment history, or other chronic diseases, etc. The aim of the Hallwang Private Oncology Clinic is to find the best treatment strategy for the patient, and not exclude any patient from a treatment protocol because of the factors mentioned beforehand. Also, clinical studies often use placebo as a control or some alternative, though possibly inferior, treatment protocol, in order to compare treatment responses in two groups of patients. Naturally, at the Hallwang Clinic, a patient will always receive the treatment the medical team think is best for the patient after a thorough discussion of state-of-the-art, alternatives, possible side effects and complications of this treatment. 

Patients at the Hallwang Clinic

Patients at the Hallwang Clinic are treated with individual treatments. For example, doctors elsewhere persist on chemotherapeutic regimens and protocols that have been established years ago. These protocols may achieve a “good overall result“ – but they do not think about whether it would be possible to achieve even better or more durable results for those patients. While some patients respond well to a certain chemotherapeutic protocol, and do not experience severe side effects, others need to discontinue the standard protocol due to terrible side effects, or they progress under the standard protocol. Alternative protocols for these patients, that did not tolerate the standard chemo regimen, are limited. And if the patient then develops complications on the alternative chemo protocol, options become really scarce. In contrast, worldwide there are so many ongoing clinical trials with cancer drugs, showing amazing results in advanced clinical phases. But as long as these drugs are not approved, or only available if you pay for them privately, these drugs will not be provided to other patients who have already exhausted all available standard treatment strategies and are in immediate need for further options, as they are rapidly progressing. And this is terrible. There should be an open and honest discussion about what is known (and what is not known) about these modern drugs, what results have been achieved so far in other patients, what risks, side effects and complications can occur, so that the patient and his/her doctor can together weigh pros and cons and make an educated decision. The patient should know about his/her chances when he/she takes the drug in an experimental setting in contrast to when he/she takes no treatment at all. But the problem is that these new clinical trial drugs do not even come into question for these kind of heavily pre-treated and further progressing patients and are therefore not discussed with the patients due to country-specific limitations and laws, thus depriving patients of possibly life-extending or even life-saving treatments.

In conclusion, the Hallwang clinic is a pioneer for individualized targeted and precision-based therapies for patients who are eligible for these therapies based on a thorough biomarker analysis and who have no other guideline approved options. The Hallwang Private Oncology Clinic team has shown to be very successful in extremely difficult situations. Furthermore, they are able to provide further lines of therapeutic options due to a surrounding that offers close monitoring. You have to consider that the medical team of the Hallwang Clinic is having one oncologist for every 2-3 patients and nearly a 1:1 nurse/patient ratio, enabling therapies for critical patients which have been given no follow up therapy due to a lack of a close monitoring possibilities.