Insulin Potentiation Therapy (IPT):

Insulin Potentiation Therapy (IPT), sometimes referred to as Low Dose Chemotherapy, is a controversial cancer treatment procedure originally practiced by Dr. Donato Perez  Garcia and continued by his son, Dr. D. Perez Garcia Bellon.   IPT must be distinguished from those procedures that employ lower doses of chemotherapy on a daily basis and do not use insulin as part of the treatment. There is disagreement whether low dose chemotherapy is overall more effective than high dose chemotherapy.

The primary thrust of low dose chemotherapy is to reduce the incidence and severity of the severe side effects of chemotherapy. Critics worry that the long term effect may lead to an early resistance of the cancer to the chemotherapy agent. Resistance usually always occurs in conventional high dose chemotherapy, so the argument is really which treatment will kill proportionally more cancer cells and how much more time will the patient gain before the drug becomes ineffective. Can the low dose approach result in a remission of the cancer and how long will it last? A critical question should also be; what is the patient’s quality of life during the time gained by both of these approaches?

Research on the low dose regimen is in progress and has sufficient financial backing to provide some answers to these questions. The use of this treatment regimen in early stage cancer patients will determine the true effectiveness, if any, of this approach.

Immune Recovery Clinic is interested in the low dose approach, because it potentially may offer less immune damage than the high dose treatment.  Thus, it would allow a simultaneous treatment with chemotherapy and immune therapy. Theoretically, low dose chemotherapy combined with immune therapy makes sense. However, to date there is no evidence to support or deny this possibility/combination.

Insulin Potentiation Therapy (IPT) combines the low dose approach with the additional activity of insulin. The original theory in simplified form is as follows:

 “Cancer cells have high metabolic rates because they are growing, and cancer cells can only use glucose as an energy source. Thus, cancer cells have more insulin receptors on the cell surface and will have a more intense reaction to insulin than normal cells.  Therefore, if the patient is given insulin, the blood glucose level will go down and the cancer cells will momentarily be starved for glucose. If both glucose and a chemotherapy drug are given while the cells are starved for glucose the cancer cell membranes will open for glucose and more of the chemotherapeutic agent will also enter the cell. Under these conditions a lower dose of chemotherapy will be as effective as a high dose.”

IPT has been around since the 1930s.  Its use has been widely criticized because (1) it does not have a mechanism of action acceptable to current scientific dogma, (2) it does not have comparative clinical studies to support its claims, and (3) it was not invented in the US. Under the original concept the patient’s blood glucose level would be dropped to the level of insulin shock; then, the chemotherapy agent and glucose would be administered. This can be without question a dangerous procedure unless carefully administered. Physicians have justified this approach by saying it was no more dangerous than a high dose chemotherapy regimen that brought with it its own mortality rate. More recently the IPT approach has been modified by some so as not to drop the patient’s blood glucose level to the point of sending the body into insulin shock. While this more recent   regimen has avoided the insulin shock problem, it has not yet resolved the primary question – is IPT as effective, or more effective than high dose chemotherapy? There are no studies comparing low dose to high dose chemotherapy that meet the“ FDA type standards.”

Just as there are no controlled studies to show the effectiveness of low dose chemotherapy, there are no such controlled studies for IPT. If IPT is to be proven effective, its greatest utility would be in the initial treatment of cancer, and not after all other options have been tried. Today’s standard regulatory approach is to try new therapies last, after other treatment options have failed.  At that time, unfortunately, the most effective chemotherapeutic agents to fight a particular cancer will have failed, and, therefore, there would be no reason to believe that IPT would now render these agents active once more. Thus, any such study of IPT under present guidelines would be biased against IPT. This is also true for immune therapy, where the guidelines dictate that immune therapy is tried last, after chemotherapy and radiation have totally destroyed the immune system. Thus, any study conducted of either approach under the conventional guidelines is guaranteed to fail.

Immune Recovery Clinic has extensively reviewed the information on low dose chemotherapy and insulin. We believe that IPT, as it is currently used, is an effective alternative to high dose chemotherapy. We agree that data supporting  IPT is not available, namely the kind of data the scientific community desires. However, there are also no data to reject IPT outright. We have examined the current procedures of Dr. Donato Perez Garcia Bellon and find they have the potential to become an accepted treatment. We also believe that incorporating IPT and immune therapy in an individualized protocol has much promise.  Many patients will opt for IPT after having exhausted all conventional options, although they might not be the ideal candidates for this treatment procedure. However, there is evidence that immune therapy can sensitize some cancers to chemotherapy.  Therefore, this treatment combination may aid even those patients, who did not initially respond to chemotherapy.

Immune Recovery Clinic strongly believes that any procedure for chemotherapy which avoids immune damage should be utilized. A concerted attack on cancer cells from several approaches offers more promise of success. There are reports of immune therapy facilitating the activity of both radiation and chemotherapy.  We feel that the potential of immune therapy as a first stage treatment of cancer is essentially being ignored by the medical community. The combination of immune therapy and IPT deserves careful consideration.