Coley's toxins

Coley's toxins (also called Coley's toxin,[1] Coley's vaccine,[2] Coley vaccine, Coley's fluid or mixed bacterial vaccine) is a mixture containing toxins filtered from killed bacteria of species Streptococcus pyogenes and Serratia marcescens, named after William Coley, a surgical oncologist at the Hospital for Special Surgery who developed the mixture in the late 19th century as a treatment for cancer.[3]

Their use in the late nineteenth and early 20th centuries represented a precursor to modern cancer immunotherapy, although at that time their mechanism of action was not completely understood.[4]

There is no evidence that Coley's toxins have any effectiveness in treating cancer, and use of them risks causing serious harm.[5]

  1. ^ Thotathil Z, Jameson MB (2007). "Early experience with novel immunomodulators for cancer treatment". Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs. 16 (9): 1391–403. doi:10.1517/13543784.16.9.1391. PMID 17714025. S2CID 33668239.
  2. ^ Taniguchi Y, Nishizawa T, Kouhchi C, et al. (2006). "Identification and characterization of lipopolysaccharide in acetic acid bacteria". Anticancer Res. 26 (6A): 3997–4002. PMID 17195448.
  3. ^ [1] Pick, Thomas Pickering, "Surgery," Longmans, Green and Company, 1899, Pages 250–251. Retrieved August 3, 2010.
  4. ^ Hall, Stephen K. (1997). A commotion in the blood: life, death, and the immune system. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-5841-9.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference cruk was invoked but never defined (see the help page).