William Coley

Attachments

1891 Surgical wounds were left open to facilitate the development of infection, and purulent sores were created deliberately... One of the most well-known effects of microorganisms on...cancer was reported in 1891, when an American surgeon,...
1893-Today Coley's toxins
1953-Today Cancer Research Institute (CRI)
1975-Today William B. Coley Award
Coley, inflicted with an inclination that Stein's case of post-procedural erysipelas may have some correlation to his remission, then began thoroughly reviewing similar cases of bacterial infections having positive effects on malignant tumors.
Curious to discover the reason for the man's remission, Coley decided to search for the hospital's discharged patient, who he eventually found in Manhattan with no trace of cancer left in his body.
He found that his suspicion was not a newfound thought in oncology.
Helen Coley Nauts
James Ewing, a famed cancer pathologist at the time, was one of Coley's biggest critics.
To the astonishment of the doctors in the hospital at the time, Stein's round cell sarcoma seemingly vanished after being diagnosed with erysipelas, a skin infection now known to be caused by the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes.