Coleys Toxins
What are Coleys Toxins?
Coleys Toxins is a cocktail of inactive bacteria used as nonspecific immunotherapy in the treatment of cancer.
Fever kills cancer
This study says:
It is interesting to note that the current primary cancer management procedures neither harness the benefits of patients’ own immune system nor stimulate it to achieve tumor regression but actively suppress it; thus it does not run parallel to body’s own defensive mechanisms but opposes its natural role.
Asepsis, fever control, surgery, and immunosuppressive therapies are known to have an inverse relation to cancer regression, while acute infection, fever, and cancer vaccines by the virtue of immunostimulation induce regression of cancer even in the most advanced stage of disease and prove that cancer is not an irreversible process without a cure.
This 2016 review study says:
More than 100 years ago, in 1891, an American surgeon William B. Coley observed that application of suitable microorganisms could significantly affect subsequent tumour progression. Cancer patients were treated by injection with the so-called Coley’s toxin, which contained heat-killed microorganisms – Str. pyogenes and Ser. marcescens. Coley’s toxin was often used for the successful treatment of sarcomas, carcinomas, lymphomas, melanomas and myelomas. Complete and prolonged regression of advanced stages of malignant disease was documented in many cases. The author has previously reported that in 80% of the cases of malignant tumours, for which no alternate form of treatment was available, survival was longer than 5 years. Even in end-stage cancer patients, notable improvements in health were described. During treatment with Coley’s toxin, a broad spectrum of side effects of the administered adjuvant occur, owing to which this treatment is not generally accepted among clinicians
The last recorded successful application of the toxin was in China in 1980 as a primary therapy for the treatment of terminal liver cancer. The patient received 68 injections of Coley’s toxin during the 34 weeks of therapy. After this procedure, the symptoms disappeared completely.
Study: In the era of increasing cancer incidence, the use of microbial vaccines for immunotherapy is still being re-examined. In this regard, the historical bacterial mixture of Coley’s Toxin has here been shown of exhibiting antitumoral and immunostimulatory potential in vitro as well as in vivo. Data presented herein prove that this approach may provide a basis for local repetitive administration into tumor-carrying hosts, which would be best applied as combinatorial agent. Hence, Coley’s Toxin still holds promise for further preclinical analyses that could finally contribute to a successful treatment regimen in vivo.
Study … MBV (Coley’s Toxins) treatment at fever-inducing dose levels can lead to a massive induction of immunoregulatory cytokines that may have supported tumor regression mediated by immunologic mechanisms in a patient with advanced bladder cancer. In 6 of 12 patients, a prolonged overall survival was observed without any other treatment correlation.
The individual immune response to MBV seems to be the result of dose, timing, potential additive, or synergistic effects, and genetically determined responsiveness. The immunomodulatory effects render MBV as a potent adjuvant that may benefit from thecombination with different strategies to treat cancer, including cancer vaccines.
Study: Despite his reported good results, Coley’s Toxins came under a great deal of criticism because many doctors did not believe his results. This criticism, along with the development of radiation therapy and chemotherapy, caused Coley’s Toxins to gradually disappear from use…the modern science of immunology has shown that Coley’s principles were correct and that some cancers are sensitive to an enhanced immune system.
Study: In 1891, William B. Coley injected streptococcal organisms into a patient with inoperable cancer. He thought that the infection he produced would have the side effect of shrinking the malignant tumor. He was successful, and this was one of the first examples of immunotherapy. Over the next forty years, as head of the Bone Tumor Service at Memorial Hospital in New York, Coley injected more than 1000 cancer patients with bacteria or bacterial products. These products became known as Coley’s Toxins. He and other doctors who used them reported excellent results, especially in bone and soft-tissue sarcomas
This study says infections in tumors may reactivate defensive functions, causing tumour regression.
“Can it be a coincidence that this method of immunotherapy has been “rediscovered” repeatedly throughout the centuries? Clearly, Coley’s approach to cancer treatment has a place in the past, present, and future. It offers a rare opportunity for the development of a broadly applicable, relatively inexpensive, yet effective treatment for cancer. Even in cases beyond the reach of conventional therapy, there is hope.
“A revival of interest and a closer look at the scientific merits of Coley’s treatment may seem to some like a doctrine that would make cancer research go backwards; yet judging from the slow progress of conventional cancer treatments, a step backward may indeed be a giant leap forward.”
A Role for the Immune System in Cancer Control
Source: Life Extension Foundation
The role of the immune system in counteracting the development of cancer was initially supported by individual clinical case reports. Groundbreaking work in the late 1800s by a New York surgeon, William Coley, noted that some cancer patients who were simultaneously suffering from bacterial infections had regression of their tumors (Richardson MA et al 1999; Wiemann B et al 1994). He concluded that, in trying to fight off the bacterial infection, the patients’ immune systems had become highly activated and that this had given them some resistance to the tumor.
Coley later concocted a crude vaccine preparation, called “Coley’s toxins,” that was made up of killed bacteria. While some of Coley’s patients enjoyed complete tumor regression, the responses were somewhat varied and his work was initially regarded with skepticism (Richardson MA et al 1999; Wiemann B et al 1994).
However, more recent research has produced a considerable body of scientific evidence documenting the immune system’s role in controlling cancer growth. For example, cancer occurs more frequently in individuals with weakened immune systems (Oliver RT et al 1992; Penn I 1986, 1988).
In addition, some types of cancer undergo spontaneous regression, again adding weight to the notion that the immune system is naturally able to fight cancer (Oliver RT et al 1989). Furthermore, cancer patients often have specific antibodies (proteins that bind to antigens) circulating in their blood, again demonstrating that the immune system can detect tumor cells and mount a specific response (Hellstrom IE et al 1968) that also involves specific T cells, or T lymphocytes (Itoh K et al 1988; Muul LM et al 1987; Vose BM et al 1985)...continue reading this article at Life Extension Foundation
Adverse effects
Treatment with MBV was considered safe. In all patients, MBV–related local and systemic reactions were mild to moderate. Three patients had no reactions at all. Five patients experienced local reactions, such as reddening, swelling, pain, or pruritus at the injection site. Four patients had systemic and local reactions, which were likely to be related to pyrogenicity and associated inflammation. Any side effects resolved within 1 to 5 days. No dose limiting toxicity and no treatment-related serious adverse events occurred. Study
Where can I get this treatment and more information?
Dr. Coley’s daughter, Helen Coley Nauts, founded the Cancer Research Institute in New York in 1953, which continues to study how immunology can help diagnose and treat cancer.
Combinations of Coley toxins and other strains of bacteria are still being used at the Waisbren Clinic in Milwaukee. Coley toxins or similar treatments are also used in clinics in several other countries.
Updated 2024