Using bacteria to treat cancer is nothing new, in fact such treatments have been available for over hundred years. Dr. William B. Coley (1862-1936) is the grandfather of bacterial treatments. Dr. Coley, a Harvard Medical School graduate, eminent New York City surgeon and was an early US cancer pioneer. He used a vaccine to induce inflammation and fever in cancer patients.
Dr. William B. Coley first attempts to produce reaction in the cancer patients by injecting streptococcus cultures into them ended in failure. The he was able to get a particularly virulent culture from Robert Koch a famous German bacteriologist. The person who received this culture developed a extremely severe case of erysipelas with high fever. But the tumors in his neck and tonsils completely disappeared within a few days.
Coley later tried to and succeeded in improving his method because Because using live bacteria was dangerous and caused an ordeal for the patient. He mixed the toxins of the strep with those of another germ Bacillus prodigiosus, instead of using bacteria.
When Dr. Coley and his colleague supervised the production of toxins were the best results obtained. The pharmaceutical company called Parke-Davis, for many years produced the toxins commercially, but the effectiveness of the toxins were reduced because they heated the formula. But despite this, Parke-Davis formula # IX, showed a 37% cure rate for inoperable patients.
NCI researcher M.J. Shears discovered in 1943, that the biologically active substance in Coley's toxins is lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The production of the toxins in the United States stopped in 1953 however. This highly effective method has remained sidelined for over a century. The American Cancer Society added this method to the list of unproven .
In conventional cancer treatments today Coley's toxins are not used because they are thought to be ineffective or experimental. But the main reason why this method is not used, is that it is inexpensive and unpatentable. To read more about this treatment and hundreds of other cancer cures click the link in my resource box.
