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Coley's Toxins- The Cure to Cancer?
Imagine a scenario where a vaccine is created. You are injected with it in small doses, and every day the size of the dose is slightly increased. Not by much, but a small amount. These injections continue for a ranging time span, from a month to even a year. There is only two side effects to this vaccine; a high fever for as long as you have the injections, and an eradication, else, failing that, a complete retardation of growth, of cancer.
Now try to imagine the fact that it was invented in the early 1890's by a man named Dr. William B. Coley.
Around 1891, Dr. Coley was just a few years out of medical school, running his own private practice in a New York hospital. In that hospital a woman came in with a problem. She had pinched her hand in a rail car ride and developed a bruise. Since that time the bruise had grown into a growth and she was afraid she had infected it.
The doctors at the hospital were perplexed. After a while of not knowing what to do, they transfered her over to Dr. Coley. He himself could not figure out what to do- he woman sadly ended up dying of a type of cancer- Sarcoma, which in the nineteenth century there really was no way to cure it. Dr. Coley was distressed about this loss, unlike most doctors that would shrug it off as a failure. After a great deal of research in how to prevent this, he found his answer.
A German man who came to the hospital one day with a great sarcoma in his left jaw was operated on, many times. However these operations were unsuccessful- The cancer simply grew back with greater force each time. The last operation done left an open wound on his face which became infected. He was deemed a terminal case. However, he walked out of that hospital a while later with simply a scar on his left ear.
The answer? Dr. Coley fund out that a strain of virus had kicked the man's immune system into high gear- after a high fever the cancer died away. Streptococcus pyogenes, a commonplace bacteria, was the main cause of the fever. With each attack of the fever, his tumor reduced in size greatly. That was Dr Coley's inspiration for a concoction of his own- Coley's Toxins as they became to be known. Originally he used live Streptococcus injected directly into the cancerous tissue. This worked remarkably well for some patients yet some died as a result of the bacteria. His solution? A vaccine- dead cells that allow the immune system to learn how to deal with the real deal. You have probably had a flu shot once in your life, and this was essentially it.
The dosage started out minimal, and then increased over time. By the time of his death in 1936, he had literally completely cured hundreds of people.
Outrageously, in 1963, the FDA changed the status of Coley's Toxins to 'new drug'- a category that states that the drug may only be used in testing. The reason? Nobody knew how it actually worked- aside from stimulating the immune system not one person- including Dr. Coley- understood it's ways of operation.
Now, I may be picky, but I'd really live with a fever for a year instead of radiation for life and chemicals dumped into my body- why suppress our immune system when you can get it to work full steam?
Bibliography;
Damninteresting.com
article #871
"Coley's Cancer-Killing Concoction"
www.damninteresting.com?p=871
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