Breast Cancer, Immunological Factors Affecting Incidence, Prognosis and Survival; Part I: Factors Affecting Host Resistance and Response to Treatment.; Part II: The Immunopotentiating Effects of Concurrent Infections,; Inflammation or Fever; Part III. Immunotherapy, Effects of Bacterial Vaccines

Case Details

Personal Characteristics

Miss e.e.f., female, aged 42, of new britain, connecticut. The patient’s paternal grandmother had died of carcinoma of the breast, but the family history was negative for tuberculosis or specific disease. The patient’s previous health had been good.

Clinical Characteristics

Onset, in october 1895, she first noticed a hard lump below the left clavicle in the pectoral and axillary region. This grew rapidly and in two months had reached the size of an orange. It was firmly adherent to the deep vessels and extended well into the axilla. Her general health deteriorated and she lost 24 pounds in weight.

Remission Characteristics

By the latter part of march 1896, a little over three months after the toxins were begun, the growth had entirely disappeared and the patient had gained rapidly in weight and strength, so that she soon regained the 25 pounds she had lost prior to toxin therapy.

Treatment & Mechanisms

Proposed Remission Mechanisms

The tumor began to shrink shortly after the injections were begun. It was incised nine times during the course of the treatment, in order to facilitate the drainage of necrotic tumor tissue.

Clinical Treatment

Toxin therapy (button vi): injections were begun by stores and dr. R. H. Griswold on december 16, 1895, the day following the patient’s admission to the hartford hospital. The initial dose was one drop, which was gradually increased to a maximum of 8 minims.

Additional Notes

The patient remained in good health, married, and when last traced by Coley shortly before his own death she was well except for pain in her knee joints. On October 10, 1939 (at the age of 86) she was seen by Dr. Philip G. Mcclellan of Hartford, who stated that examination of the pectoral region showed nothing but the scarring of the biopsy and the sinuses. Shortly thereafter she developed a small basal cell epithelioma at the left side of her nose. She died on May 2, 1943, at the age of 89, of bronchopneumonia and decompensated arteriosclerotic heart disease. This was 48 years after onset.