Coley’s Dramatic Cancer Cures, Part 1: A 16-Year-Old Boy with Abdominal Cancer

by Mary W Maxwell, LLB

William Coley, MD, was one of many discoverers of cures for cancer before the year 1950. After that you were not “allowed” to cure cancer.  In fact, doctors today are forbidden to use the verb “cure” in connection with that particular disease.

There is a book called “A Review of the Influence on Bacterial Infection and of Bacterial Products (Coley’s Toxins) on Malignant Tumors in Man,” by Helen Coley Nauts, George A A Fowler, MD, and Frances Bogatko, MD, F.A.C.S. It is 103 pages. I make the guess that no one in America would “dare” publish it.

William Coley lived from 1862 to 1936.  Years after his death his daughter, Helen Coley Nauts, came to realize what he achieved and she worked hard for years to collect the relevant information. She hoped to make it available so many more people could be cured using her father’s “toxins.”

The book mentioned above was published in 1953 in Stockholm.  According to Worldcat.org, there are four copies in libraries – two in Switzerland and two in Denmark.  Ah, but there is at least a fifth copy in the world and I am holding it in my hand.

I bought it in 2012 when preparing my book “Consider the Lilies: A Review of 18 Cures for Cancer and Their Legal Status.” That mention of “legal status” was a polite way of indicating the ridiculous fact that doctors using good cancer cures may find themselves in prison.

In this series I shan’t emphasize the politics of cancer.  I will get right down to presenting cases. For this first one, I will take the words exactly from the Helen Nauts Coley book. You will see that eminent doctors participated in verifying all aspect of the case.

The rest of this article is from the book, with no comment by me (MM):

COMPLETE CASE HISTORIES

Note: This patient was the first case of any type of cancer to be treated by Coley’ s mixed toxins. The cultures of erysipelas and bacillus prodigiosus were grown separately, passed through a Kitasato filter (without heating), and mixed at the time of use.

They were prepared by Dr Alexander Lambert at the Laboratory of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. Coley stated that the streptococcus culture used was obtained from a fatal case of erysipelas and was exceptionally potent. The second case also received this product.

CASE I: Inoperable spindle cell sarcoma of the abdominal wall and pelvis, involving the bladder, confirmed by microscopic examination by Dr Harlow T. Brooks, pathologist.

Previous History and Treatrnent Other than Toxin: J. F. F., male, age I6, born in Germany, living in New York City. The family history was negative for malignancy. There was no history of syphilis. Onset, about three months prior to admission to Memorial Hospital, pain developed in the abdomen.

About two months afterward a hard lump was felt in the lower abdomen. This increased slowly but steadily in size. Occasionally the pain in the tumor was very severe, being intermittent in character. There was no loss of weight. Examination on admission showed a hard tumor measuring about 6.5 inches across by 5.25 inches and apparently being 5 inches thick. There was no fluctuation.

The growth involved the entire thickness of the abdominal wall, was attached to the pelvis and judging from the symptoms and position evidently involved the bladder. (The patient was unable to retain urine when admitted.) The general condition was poor, the patient being confined to bed most of the time.

An exploratory laparotomy was performed by Dr L. Bolton Bangs, Professor of Genito-urinary Surgery at New York Postgraduate Hospital and Medical School. The condition was found to be inoperable and the patient was referred to Dr William B. Coley.

Toxin Therapy: (Type IV). Injections were begun by Coley on January 24, I893, and were given directly into the tumor mass. They were continued in slightly increasing doses until May 13, 1893, or a little less than four months. The Memorial Hospital Records state:

“These injections produced within eight hours a rise in temperature from 0.5 ° to 6°, the pulse running from 100 to 106. The chill and tremblings were extreme. For the severe headaches following the chill, Phenacetine was given. Aseptic precautions being successful, no pus was produced, in spite of the many needle punctures.

The tumor gradually diminished in size, at times for a few days after injection it would be enlarged, but the final diminution was indisputable. (72). The dosage used varied between 0·5 and 1·5 cc. of erysipelas, and 0.25 and 0.5 of prodigiosus.

Coley stated that the chill usually occurred within the first half hour after injection, though occasionally it was delayed an hour. Sometimes local redness and swelling accompanied the reaction. Usually both local and constitutional symptoms had subsided at the end of 24 hours.

Clinical Course: The patient was discharged on May 13, 1893, at which time the tumor was a fifth the size it had been on admission. No further treatment was given. At examination two weeks later the tumor was no longer visible.

Palpation revealed a small movable mass, two inches in diameter at the site of the former growth. (When the toxins were begun the mass measured 5.25  by 6.5  inches.) The enlarged glands in the right inguinal region still persisted. The patient had gained ten pounds in weight in the previous four weeks.

By August I, the remains of the growth had almost disappeared, save for a small mass palpable in the right iliac fossa. The inguinal glands were still enlarged. The patient was kept under constant observation. He was able to resume his regular work and received no further treatment.

He was presented before the New York Academy of Medicine, November 15, 1894. Six years later he developed a primary lesion of syphilis, which ran the usual course and was finally cured by mixed treatment.

He was presented by Coley before the New York Surgical Society in 1900 and again on February 13, 1907, in perfect health (29, Case 57). He remained in very good health and free from recurrence until his sudden death on February 26, 1919, over 26 years after toxin therapy.

Death occurred in the subway station at 42nd Street, (Grand Central Station), New York. The death was investigated by the Chief Medical Examiner and the cause listed as chronic myocarditis, a contributary cause being “fatty degeneration of the heart” (102, No. 8370).

References: 9, II, 21, 22, 29, 4 1, 73, 102.

Note 72 is “from Massachusetts General Hospital case records.”

— end of Case 1 from the book published in Sweden