The Gorter Model is a novel and creative approach in the treatment of cancer patients and other chronic diseases, such as infections with hepatitis B and C and HIV.

In the Gorter Model, traditional academic (western) medicine is combined with new therapies, which have a sound scientific basis, but are not commonly applied yet. Therefore, therapeutic interventions and their outcome, including changes in quality of life of all patients, who are treated according to the Gorter Model, will be uniformly documented on a regular basis. In this way, efficacy can be evaluated and therapy modalities can be adjusted.

Medical Center Cologne applies the Gorter Model, an innovative, nontoxic approach, since 2000, under the direction of Robert W.D. Gorter, MD, PhD .

The goal of the treatment is to improve the immune system ("immune restoration"). The basic elements of the Gorter Model are the integration of the therapies and protocols in a schedule designed specifically for each patient. For more than a decade now, documentation and evaluation of all data is being conducted by research fellows who will receive their masters degree or PhD from German or international universities world-wide through work at the Medical Center Cologne.

The Gorter Model is designed to restore and enhance immune function, enabling the immune system to aggressively and effectively combat cancer cells throughout the body. The treatment may involve some or all of the following therapies to optimize immune function or to directly destroy the cancer cells:

• Dendritic cells vaccination
• Hyperthermia
• Intravenous therapies with vitamins, minerals, trace elements, antioxidants and glandular extracts
• Viscum album (Mistletoe) therapy
• Treatment with oncolytic viruses (Newcastle Disease Virus)
• Lifestyle and mind-set

Read more about the therapies in the Gorter Model

Over the past twelve years, more than 4000 patients were treated at Medical Center Cologne with the dendritic cells therapy.

Conditions that have been successfully treated with this nontoxic cancer therapy include all metastasized solid tumors, such as breast, prostate, lung, brain, liver, colon and bone cancer.
96% of all our patients are at the end stages of cancer and for them, we are the last hope. However, they frequently experience partial remission and stabilize for several years with a very positive quality of life or even sustained and complete remission. The treatment implies hope, although not all patients improve.

In cases of stage IV glioblastoma multiforme, 48% of the patients experienced complete remission and 24% of them partial remission. Some die in the course of the treatment, which would be expected since the vast majority of patients enter the program with end-stage disease, major tumors and extensive tissue destruction, physical depletion and immune compromise.

Many are also physically compromised from previous applications of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. This makes the stabilization of their disease all the more remarkable.

Although cancers may vary in many characteristics and clinical outcome, the available anti-cancer therapies tend to be standardized and seldom address the unique characteristics of a patient's particular tumor, or the personal needs of the patient self.

For the most part, these therapies work like carpet bombing:
the target is sometimes hit, but often it is not or only to a certain degree, because cancerous cells tend to be well-armoured against attacks, and, in any case, the therapies do considerable collateral damage to normal (healthy) tissue.

For the same reason that the behaviour of wildlife in captivity may tell one more about captivity than about wildlife, it is difficult to test anti-cancer drugs in a petri dish. To get a better sense of a cancer's real vulnerabilities, one need to have the cells grow as a tumour in an animal, or even better, in a human.

The same holds true for the functioning of the immune system. One can take blood samples and count, for instance, numbers and percentages of T-lymphocytes, and correlate numbers with function. But to study the function of T-lymphocytes, researcher should observe the T-lymphocyte directly when it unfolds its immunocompetent function in the tissue of the organs in situ.

Therefore, in the Gorter Model, not only immunocompetent cells are counted and identified through surface markers, but also function tests are conducted to document cell function and possible improvement of function during and after therapy. Other treatment modalities will target life style changes. Attention is paid to nutrition, and supplementation with vitamins, antioxidants, and trace elements.

Other life style changes might include increased physical activities, like bicycling, swimming and walking (jogging), and exercise under guidance of an instructor. Also, improvement of mental and social functioning is encouraged, and advice and counseling are offered.

The nontoxic cancer therapy at Medical Center Cologne does not debilitate patients. Even patients with Stage IV cancer often report that they feel a certain sense of vitality and are able to maintain or improve their quality of life throughout much of the course of their illness. Conditions that have been successfully treated with the Gorter Model include almost all metastasized solid tumors, such as breast, prostate, lung, brain, liver, colon and bone cancer. Improved health and quality of life is documented in numerous patients' interviews,available at „testimonials” .

In conclusion, one can say that the Gorter Model is innovative, as it integrates traditional western academic medicine with novel therapies, paying significant attention to all the needs of the patient, and the characteristics of the tumour itself. In addition, all of these therapies have a sound scientific basis and sufficient clinical experience has been collected to guarantee little to no side effects and a well-founded hope for a good response to therapy.