Coley’s Dramatic Cancer Cures, Part 2: The Veterinarian Who Wouldn’t Quit

by Mary W Maxwell, LLB

Don’t miss this case; it is thrilling. The patient was smarter than the doctors.

It appears as Case 7 in the book by Helen Coley Nauts et al. During my journey through the literature of marvellous cancer cures (which are forbidden to the public) I copied out some perfect cures by Virginia Livingston, MD, Emanuel Revivci, MD, Robert Lincoln, MD, and others.

Those were mainly provided by the “offending” doctor. A skeptic may doubt them as self-serving. One accusation that was made was that the patient really didn’t have cancer in the first place, “the diagnosis was faulty.”

But Coley was a big-wig. He had big-wig colleagues, including the famous William H. Welch, MD, of Johns Hopkins.  In regard to the case below, where the patient was a veterinarian, Dr William Coley said, in 1902:

“This case is so extraordinary that it is most important that the should be placed beyond question. The mass removed on May 9 was examined by Dr J. L. Rothrock, of St. Paul and pronounced sarcoma. This was confirmed by Dr Schadle. Microscopical examination was also made by Dr George D. Haggard, of Minneapolis, after removing another section, August 11, and pronounced spindle cell sarcoma. All agreed that it was clinically sarcoma and absolutely inoperable.

Sections were also examined by Drs B. N. Buxton and James Ewing, Professor of Pathology at the Cornell Medical School, New York, and finally by Dr William H. Welch, of Johns Hopkins. 

I now present the case without abridgement , and with bolding added by me – MM.

Previous History and Treatment Other than Toxin

A.Y., male, age 40, born in Sweden. The patient, a veterinary surgeon, with good family history, and in excellent health, was struck over the right superior maxilla by the horn of a bull early in February 1901. [There is no later explanation as to how the blow caused the cancer.]

Two or three weeks later he had severe pain over the site of injury, and to relieve this the canine tooth was pulled. Pain continued, and the patient went to St. Paul in the middle of April and consulted Dr J. E. Schadle, who made a diagnosis of sarcoma.

The first bicuspid tooth was pulled and the antrum explored without any evidence of an abscess being found. Excision of the upper jaw was proposed and performed on May 9 by Dr C. K. Wheaton of St. Paul, assisted by Drs Rogers and Dennis. A letter from Rogers to Coley describing the operation, states:

“There was found a large tumor involving the antrum and almost the entire upper jaw. Ferguson’s incision was made but an attempt to remove the entire growth proved unsuccessful. Thorough curetting and cauterizing of the remaining portions was done. There was also a mass the size of a hen’s egg underneath the ear on the opposite side. This was completely removed. The patient having partially recovered from the effects of the operation, returned to his home, LakePark, Minnesota on May 18, partially relieved of the pain.” 

After a few days the sarcomatous growth again began to increase in size, invading the nose and extending along the palate into the pharynx, and also involving the parotid region. On June 25 he returned to St. Paul and consulted Schadle, under whose care he remained until July 18.

Only palliative measures were used, however, at this time, and Schadle wrote Winberg on July 13 that he felt the prognosis was very unfavorable. He added: “The disease is undoubtedly sarcoma and will eventually destroy him“. Before returning home the patient consulted Haggard of Minneapolis, remaining under his care from August I to I r. Haggard stated that the patient had difficulty in retaining food and also in obtaining action of the bowels. He advised a trial of the Coley toxins, although others had strongly discouraged their use, considering the case altogether hopeless. Haggard further noted:

“From August 1 to 11 [1901],  weakness was progressive. Having been able to walk daily from one to two miles, he now became barely able to walk from the door to the carriage. Pulse 130. Jaundice, at first slight, became more pronounced. Dullness and tenderness appeared in the hepatic region. Nausea and vomiting increased. Stools constipated and claycolored, urine dark with bile.”

[Haggard] added: “From these conditions we decided metastasis had occurred in the liver.” 

At this time the right nasal cavity was occluded, the soft palate retracted and thickened by a tumor mass in its substance. This was ulcerated in the center, the ulcerated cavity being 1 x 1.5 inches in size. The tumor extended from the right malar eminence to the bridge of the nose, with which it was even in height, and downwards to the edge of the maxilla.

From the higher portion of the tumor at the side of the nose Haggard removed a section (part of this tissue was later sent to Welch). The patient returned to Lake Park on August 12; Winberg found that the disease had progressed rapidly; jaundice had become more profound, and the liver was enlarged. Pulse 140 to ISO, irregular and intermittent. At this time speech was difficult to understand and the odor from the disintegrating portion of the tumor was repulsive.

Winberg  stated: “His condition was such that I hesitated to use the toxins, but the patient still kept up his courage and muttered: ‘The practice of medicine is like fishing. Sometimes a sucker bites and sometimes he does not. Let us try the toxins’.”

Toxin Therapy: (Parke Davis IX). Winberg, who administered the toxins, reported:

“The first injection of 1/2 minim was made into the tumor on August 12, 1901. August 13, 1 minim was injected. Patient’s condition grew worse, and there was no apparent effect from the toxins. On the 15th the patient’s condition was so desperate that no treatment was given. It was thought best to abandon further use of the toxins.

“The patient threatened to get another physician if I would not continue. August 16, 1.5 minims were given. The urine became very scant. Patient had severe pain in the stomach and his general condition was even more alarming. On the 17th, 2 minims of a fresh bottle of Coley’s toxins, obtained from Parke Davis & Go., were injected. Patient’s eyesight began to fail; he had suppression of urine, and no nourishment of any kind could be swallowed. The teeth had become so tightly closed that it was impossible to cleanse the mouth.

“The swelling underneath the left jaw had become the size of an English walnut, and the original tumor of the right superior maxilla had reached the size of a man’s fist. August 18: pulse I55 to 165, weak and irregular; temperature roo.8° F. Patient unable to see and rarely able to make himself understood. Jaundice greatly intensified. Large doses of nitroglycerin, gr. 1 to 50, digitalin, gr. 1 to 50, strychnia, gr. 1 to 25, were given every four hours as symptoms of heart failure had appeared. At this time he was in a stupor….

“That night he was able to swallow a little champagne … August 19 he voided 4 oz. of urine, and he passed some more in the afternoon. An injection of 2 minims of the toxins was given into the abdominal wall. On the 20th, 3 minims were given also into the abdominal wall.

“Patient seemed slightly improved. Daily doses were given, always, except the first three injections, into abdominal wall, the amount being slowly increased. The improvement, which at first had been very slight, became more and more marked. The jaundice gradually disappeared and was entirely gone at the end of three weeks, at which time the tumor in the left submaxillary region had also disappeared, and there was marked decrease in size in the primary tumor of the right superior maxilla. “Improvement in general health was rapid and continuous. Toxins were kept up in large doses up to January 4, 1902; in all 102 injections were given; 12 in August, 20 in September, 21 in October, 22 in November, 24 in December, and 4 in January. The toxins were always diluted with 15 cc. of water (and were given every day for six days and then none for two days), the dose was increased as rapidly as the patient could possibly bear it”. 

Winberg added that the patient weighed but 113 pounds when the injections were begun, and that he gained 11pounds during the first three weeks’ treatment, gain of 30 pounds in five months. and had a voracious appetite. On September 12 he rode 30 miles [on horseback] on a professional call, and since that time attended to a very large veterinary practice, which often called him away both night and day. On January 4 he weighed 143 pounds, a gain of 30 pounds in 5 months.

Clinical Course

On January 12, 1902, the patient made a trip to New York in order to show Coley the result obtained with the toxins, and on January 13 Coley presented him before the Surgical Section of the N ew York Academy of Medicine. At this time no trace of the tumors could be found either in the neck or face or jaw, and abdominal examination showed nothing abnormal. For photographs see (112) or (24), Figs. 8-9. [I do not have the photogaphs.] The patient remained in good health and free from recurrence until 1907, six years after treatment, when he died of acute nephritis following alcoholic excess (24).

Note: [I assume the notes were made by the editor, Helen Coley Nauts or George AA Fowler or Frances Bogatko]: This case is of especial significance, because it is reported in such complete detail, and also because it may have done much to persuade Coley that systemic injections could be relied upon to produce successful results. This is indicated by his remarks at the end of Winberg’s report. Apparently, he did not notice that the first three injections were made into the tumor itself for he states: “Aside from the extraordinary recovery of a patient so near death from inoperable sarcoma, the case is remarkable from the fact that the cure was obtained by injections remote from the tumor.

Therefore, the effect upon the tumor was entirely due to systemic rather than local action. Although I have personally had a few successful cases of inoperable sarcoma in which the injections were made remote from the tumor, in nearly all the successful cases the injections have been local, directly into the tumor itself.

[I don’t know who the “I” is in this section.– MM]

I have always maintained, however, that the curative action of the toxins is systemic as well as local. This case fully demonstrates the correctness of this view and disproves the position taken by a number of writers that the action of the toxins is merely local in character, in the nature of an escharotic” (112).

(A study of over 1,200 cases of various types of neoplasms treated with the toxins indicates that the site of injection apparently is of importance in determining the success or failure of the treatment. Undoubtedly, the toxins do exert a favorable effect on tumors through intramuscular or intravenous injections remote from the growth, but these alone take longer to accomplish the complete destruction of the neoplasm and, in the interim, the patient or the tumor may become immune to the toxins before the disease has been destroyed.)

References: 24, 29, 43, 112.

— Mary W Maxwell’s relevant book is “Consider the Lilies: A Review of 18 Cures for Cancer and Their Legal Status”