Bacterial toxins, cancer treatment

About a 100 years ago, Coley observed tumor regression after application of a mixture of bacterial toxins. This experiment made the foundation of immune therapy for cancer, which only recently became a promising treatment and an efficient alternative to chemotherapy. In contrast to chemotherapy (1), this new treatment does not kill tumor cells directly rather it enhances the sensitivity of the patient s own immune system against tumor cells with all the potential positive aspects like high selectivity of treatment and much less side effects (2). 

A link between bacteria and tumor therapy was found early, at the beginning of the XVIII century [10]. By the end of the XIX century, Coley [11] developed a treatment for cancer with a mixture of bacterial toxins. In 1943 Shear and Turner [4] found that the antitumor effect of Coley s toxin was due to endotoxins, and after several decades it was shown that the biological activity of LPS was due to the lipid A [5]. We investigated the structures of lipids A with regard to their antitumor activities [12], finding that the optimum in vivo activity is obtained with diglucosamines acylated by 3 long chain fatty acids. 

Thus, microorganisms have been used in cancer treatment. For example. Moss has a chapter about Coley s Toxins, a mixed bacterial vaccine, in the treatment of cancer (Moss, 1992, pp. 407 12). Moss calls the discovery of these toxins one of the most remarkable happenings in the history of cancer therapy. Discovered in the late nineteenth century by William B. Coley, M.D., chief surgeon at Memorial Hospital (now the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center or MSKCC), who undertook a 40-year experiment in treating and even curing cancer. Coley s Toxins may be regarded as the basis for modem immunotherapy. 

Havas, H.F. and Donnelly, A. J. Mixed bacterial toxins in the treatment of tumors. III. Effect of tumor removal on the toxicity and mortality rate in mice. Cancer Res. 21 17-25 (1961). 

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