Mixed bacterial toxins in the treatment of tumors. I. Methods of preparation and effects on normal and sarcoma 37-bearing mice.

Neoplasms have been reported to regress in patients subsequent to acute streptococcal infec tions. Treatment of human tumors with an in duced bacterial infection was attempted in 1868 by Busch (2), who had observed clinical improve ment in cancer patients following an attack of erysipelas. Fehleisen (7) established streptococci as the causative agents of erysipelas and obtained encouraging results when live streptococcus cul tures were injected into cancer patients. W. B. Coley (3) attempted to induce erysipelas with virulent streptococcus cultures in patients who had inoperable malignant tumors. Because of the difficulties and dangers involved, he later resorted to heat-killed organisms. To these he added Bacil lus prodigiosus (Serratia marcescens) toxins, which had been reported (20) to enhance the virulence of streptococci. The many different preparations of "Coley's Mixed Toxins" and the case histories of