Rosenheimer Str. 6-8, 83043 Bad Aibling, Germany · info@clinicum-stgeorg.de
Integrative Cancer Care
St. George Hospital adds local-regional hyperthermia, immune therapy, hormone metabolism work and supportive infusions to the surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and endocrine therapy your oncologist has planned for breast cancer. This page explains what we combine at each stage, where the evidence is strong and where it is not, and how a stay of two to four weeks runs.
The diagnosis came with a schedule: surgery, chemotherapy, perhaps radiotherapy, then years of endocrine therapy. You are not trying to replace any of it. You are looking for what supports your body through it, what may help the treatment do its work, and who will look at all of you, with the tumor in its context.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, endocrine therapy and HER2-directed drugs are the treatments that have improved survival, and they remain your treatment. What St. George Hospital adds is a program around them: heat where it makes radiation or a drug act harder in the tissue, immune and supportive measures for the months of treatment, and a measurement of the hormonal and metabolic conditions in which the tumor grew.
The program supports patients at three points: during active treatment, where the aim is tolerance and local effect; after treatment, where the aim is a plan for the years of endocrine therapy; and in recurrent or metastatic disease, where additional options are weighed after medical review. Each plan is written by Dr. Martin Rößner, Chief Physician for internal medicine and oncology, with the ward team, and coordinated with your oncologist at home. None of the therapies on this page is offered as a replacement for a treatment your oncologist recommends.
Radiofrequency applicators heat the breast or chest wall region to 40–44 °C / 104.0–111.2 °F for about 60 minutes, two to three times a week, timed to your chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Its most studied use is recurrent disease on the chest wall treated with radiotherapy.
What local-regional hyperthermia involvesThe core temperature is raised under continuous monitoring in a session of four to six hours with a physician and nurse present. Used in metastatic disease alongside systemic treatment; the evidence here is emerging, from cohort and early-phase data.
What a whole-body session involvesInsulin first, then a fraction of the standard chemotherapy dose, then glucose, with a physician and nurse at the chair. Considered for women who no longer tolerate full-dose chemotherapy, after consultation with the oncologist. The evidence is limited.
How IPT low-dose chemotherapy worksMistletoe (Viscum album) injections two to three times a week, thymus peptides and, for selected patients, dendritic cell therapy, chosen from the immune profile taken on arrival. Mistletoe is the most studied complementary therapy in European oncology.
What immune therapy involvesAlongside the endocrine therapy your oncologist prescribes, the laboratory measures how your body metabolizes estrogen (the 2-OH, 4-OH and 16-OH metabolite ratios), progesterone balance and markers of environmental estrogen exposure. Nutrition and supplementation are written from those results.
High-dose vitamin C and nutrient infusions, liver support, anti-inflammatory nutrition and supplementation (vitamin D, omega-3, curcumin, selenium) are given as supportive measures for the months of treatment. They are supportive, and the hospital says so.
The program is not suitable for every patient. Acute medical instability, severe heart disease that rules out hyperthermia, skin that cannot tolerate heat in a previously irradiated field, and a performance status that no longer allows a two-week stay are the usual reasons the physicians advise against traveling. We tell you this in writing after the records review.
After the International Office requests them, the oncology team reads your pathology (receptor status, HER2, grade), imaging and treatment summary. A video consultation and a written cost overview follow.
Tumor markers, immune status, the estrogen metabolite panel, vitamin D and organ function. The physician writes the plan with you.
Hyperthermia around your chemotherapy or radiotherapy dates, mistletoe injections from the first week, the plan adjusted from week-two measurements. A physician sees you every day.
A report for your oncologist at home and a supplementation plan. Follow-up questions go to the International Office.
Hyperthermia added to radiotherapy in recurrent breast cancer rests on strong evidence for local control, mistletoe on moderate evidence for quality of life. No trial shows longer survival from hyperthermia, and the hospital does not claim it.
Evidence is graded on this page in four words: strong, moderate, emerging and limited. A component graded limited or emerging is an individual treatment attempt decided with the patient after medical consultation, and the physician says so before you consent.
Hyperthermia with radiotherapy in recurrent breast cancer: strong. Five randomized trials in 306 patients with recurrent or inoperable primary breast cancer found complete responses in a larger share of patients when hyperthermia was added to radiotherapy, with the greatest effect in recurrences in previously irradiated areas where only low radiation doses were possible (Vernon et al., Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys, 1996). A randomized trial of superficial tumors with measured thermal dose found the same local-control benefit, and no overall survival benefit (Jones et al., J Clin Oncol, 2005). A meta-analysis of 34 studies in locoregional recurrent breast cancer confirmed the higher complete-response rate with hyperthermia added (Datta et al., Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys, 2016).
Mistletoe: moderate for quality of life. A meta-analysis of nine randomized trials in breast cancer found a medium-sized improvement in quality of life with mistletoe extracts (Loef et al., Integr Cancer Ther, 2023). Mind-body and supportive measures: the Society for Integrative Oncology guideline recommends meditation, yoga, relaxation and music therapy for anxiety and mood during breast cancer treatment and acupressure or acupuncture for chemotherapy-induced nausea, and finds no strong evidence for ingested supplements against treatment side effects (Greenlee et al., CA Cancer J Clin, 2017); the American Society of Clinical Oncology endorsed that guideline (Lyman et al., J Clin Oncol, 2018). Whole-body hyperthermia, IPT, dendritic cell therapy and the estrogen metabolism work: emerging to limited.
What the evidence does not show is longer survival from hyperthermia in breast cancer: the randomized trials measured local control, and the hospital does not claim more than they found. The article on mistletoe therapy in cancer in our journal goes through the mistletoe trials in more detail.
Treatment at St. George Hospital is self-pay. Costs are individual: a package price plus individual add-ons, set out in a written, itemized cost overview after a physician has read your findings. A deposit is paid before admission. After the stay you receive an itemized invoice in English that you can submit to your insurer; reimbursement is not promised. Details are on costs and insurance.
Patients from more than 60 countries have been treated on the ward. Munich Airport is about 60 minutes by car; the International Office arranges the transfer (charged extra), accommodation for a companion and the video consultation before you travel. The practical side is under information for international patients.
Yes, in most cases. Hyperthermia is meant to act together with the drug or the radiation, so the physician schedules sessions around your infusion or radiotherapy dates. Bring the treatment plan and the date of your last cycle. Certain regimens can be continued on the ward after coordination with your oncologist; blood counts are checked before every session that could affect them.
For recurrent breast cancer on the chest wall treated with radiotherapy, the evidence is strong: five randomized trials and a later meta-analysis found complete responses more often when hyperthermia was added. For primary tumors and for metastatic disease the evidence is emerging, from cohort and early-phase data, and the hospital says so before you consent.
Yes. Triple-negative tumors have no hormone receptor or HER2 target, so standard treatment is chemotherapy, sometimes with immunotherapy. Our program adds hyperthermia around the chemotherapy days and immune and supportive measures. The evidence for these additions in triple-negative disease specifically is limited, and the plan is written as an individual concept after medical review.
No. Tamoxifen, aromatase inhibitors and other endocrine drugs stay as your oncologist prescribed them. What the hospital adds is a measurement of how your body metabolizes estrogen, vitamin D and inflammatory markers, and nutritional and supplementation advice written from those results, which your oncologist receives in the discharge report.
Mistletoe extract is injected under the skin two to three times a week. In breast cancer a meta-analysis of nine randomized trials found a medium-sized improvement in quality of life during treatment. The hospital uses it for that purpose, as a supportive measure, and does not present it as a treatment of the tumor itself.
This page lists no prices. After a physician has reviewed your findings, you receive a written, itemized cost overview: a package price plus individual add-ons. Nothing is booked before you have it. Details are on costs and insurance.
If you want to know what the program would add to your treatment plan, send your pathology report, imaging and treatment summary. Dr. Rößner's team reads them before the video consultation and answers in writing.
The initial inquiry is free of charge. The International Office reviews your message and your case directly and gets back to you.
Munich Airport (MUC), about 60 minutes by car.
