Early drugs utilising bacterial effect on virus
Gregory experimented with various bacteria to find if they would affect this virus he had found, and had some success in his treatment of cancer patients using the bacteria Bacillus subtilis Tracy 1. He produced a filtrate of this bacteria, mixed it with a saturated magnesium sulphate solution, and gave this to patients as a daily injection.
He showed many remissions using this treatment, particularly in late stage patients for whom no other treatments were used.
1955: Dark field microscopy reveals pleomorphic forms in blood of cancer patients
In Paris Dr E Villequez (1955) used dark field microscopy, noting what appeared to be bacteria in the blood of cancer patients. When cultured the organisms were noted to be highly pleomorphic. He wrote that they had some characteristics that linked them to mycobacteria but that at other times they resembled spore forming bacteria.
1959: Scientist self inoculates with carcinoma isolate
Clara Fonti (1959) wrote on the parasitic theory of cancer and the transmissibility of cancer, citing 30 cases from her own practice. To demonstrate transmissibility, she inoculated herself in the chest wall with fluid from a metastasising mammary carcinoma. After a few days, an erythematous papillary eruption developed between her breasts, growing into a nut-sized lesion with numerous small ancillary papules. These papules were diagnosed as baso-cellular epithelioma. Fonti’s own blood was then transfused to a patient with multiple abdominal metastases, giving an amelioration of the patient’s condition.
1948-1990: Livingston-Wheeler et al, pleomorphic studies on neoplasms
Dr Virginia Livingston-Wheeler worked with many distinguished scientists throughout her long career, including Dr Roy Allen, an expert microscopist and histologist. In August 1948 Allen published The Microscopy of micro-organisms associated with neoplasms in which he stressed the pleomorphic appearance of the microbe isolated from the blood of cancer patients. Cantwell (2005) quotes Allen:
‘He described it as ranging in appearance from a rod-shaped or coccus shaped form. That the non-acid-fast coccal forms could appear as single, double, or as densely-packed round forms. That these coccal forms could vary in size from 1 micron to the smallest microscopic size the eye could detect with a microscope approx. 0.2 microns, and that the microbe could live both inside and outside the cells, and that the tiniest forms of the cancer microbe were filterable and virus sized.’
Livingston-Wheeler collaborated for many years with three well known women scientists who undoubtedly influenced her research and career: