Bacteria used as cancer fighting agents

Abstract

The first patient with cancer to be purposefully infected with bacteria was treated by German physician @ Bush in 1868. Nearly 30 years later, William B Coley, a young surgeon at New York Hospital, encountered a patient who seemed to be cured by a severe Streptococcus  pyogenesis infection. This observation led Coley to begin treating cancer patients with living bacteria. (Lee)

Current research has provided evidence that alternative tumor-specific strategies using cytokines, preferentially replicating bacteria, soluable receptors and monoclonal antibodies are in fact curing patients with cancer.