- Figure I. Bacteria in the lung observed at autopsy from
a 15 year old Latina, who died of Hodgkin's disease. Acid-fast stain, magnification
times 1000.
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-
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- Figure 2. Bacteria in a skin tumor of Hodgkin's disease.
Acid-fast stain, magnification times 1000.
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-
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- At the time of this writing there is a nationwide manhunt
for Daniel Hauser, a 13 year old boy with Hodgkin's disease, a type of
lymphoma cancer. Citing religious reasons, his parents have refused to
have the boy treated by a cancer doctor. After having received one chemo
treatment, the boy also insisted he would physically fight the doctors
if he were forced to continue therapy.
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- In the brouhaha, a Minnesota judge declared the boy had
to submit to chemotherapy and radiation, thus stirring up a national debate.
- Cancer experts claim the boy's cancer is 95% curable,
and that he will likely die without therapy. At last report, the mother
and son had disappeared and, according to the father, might have left the
country to whereabouts unknown.
-
- What is Hodgkin's disease? What causes this uncommon
form of cancer? Is there a cure for Hodgkin's? And why don't cancer experts
pay any attention to the tuberculosis-like bacteria claimed by various
investigators to cause Hodgkin's?
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- Is Hodgkin's disease a bacterial infection?
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- Hodgkin's disease (HD) was first described in 1832 by
Thomas Hodgkin. For more than a century the disease was not considered
a cancer, but was widely regarded as a bacterial and infectious disease,
possibly related to the acid-fast bacteria that cause tuberculosis. Although
cancer experts no longer consider bacteria as a cause of HD, various researchers
continue to implicate bacteria (not viruses) in this form of cancer.
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- Not surprisingly, HD and tuberculosis (TB) can co-exist
in the same patient [1]; and there is increasing recognition of a close
association between HD and so-called "non-Hodgkin's lymphoma"[2].
TB-like bacteria have also been described in "non-Hodgkin's lymphoma"
, by Busni [3,4], Aplas [5,6], and Cantwell [7,8]. AIDS patients have
an increased incidence of both Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, as
well as a high incidence of Kaposi's sarcoma [9]. Pleomorphic TB-like bacteria
have been observed and reported in AIDS-related lymphoma and Kaposi's sarcoma
by Cantwell et al. [10-13].
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- Does chemotherapy and radiation cure Hodgkin's?
-
- Before chemotherapy and radiation treatments were designed
for HD, the disease was uniformly fatal. Now the 5-year survival rate for
the average patient is about 80%. However, the patient may play a heavy
price healthwise for this standard therapy. Patients who survive radiation
treatment for HD can develop a second related cancer. According to Aisenberg,
deaths from second malignancies are the most important cause of death other
than HD itself [14].
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- Women with HD who are radiated have up to a 40 percent
greater risk for breast cancer [15]. HD patients are also at increased
risk for acute leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. University of Texas
Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found that patients surviving
childhood Hodgkin's disease suffer strokes later in life at rates about
four times that of the general population. They suspect the radiation used
in treating this cancer as a cause [16].
-
- Because cancer experts claim the cause of all these different
cancers is unknown, it is assumed there is no etiologic connection between
them. However, cancer microbe research suggests that
- pleomorphic bacteria (and virus-like forms of bacteria)
are implicated in many forms of cancer.
-
- Bacteria as a cause of Hodgkin's disease
-
- The microbiology of HD is intimately connected with the
microbiology of cancer. The reason for this is that similar-appearing bacteria
are found in the tissue in various forms of cancer. In the last half century
the leading proponents of the bacteriology of cancer include Virginia
Wuerthele-Caspe Livingston, M.D. [17], microbiologist Eleanor Alexander-Jackson
[18], cell cytologist Irene Diller [19,20], and noted biochemist Florence
Seibert [21,22]. Their work is documented in Livingston's Cancer: A New
Breakthrough [23] and The Conquest of Cancer [24]; and in my books, The
Cancer Microbe [25], and Four Women Against Cancer [26]. Color photographs
of Cantwell's cancer bacteria can be viewed on-line at the Journal of Independent
Medical Research website (www.joimr.org). There are also videos of my lectures
on the cancer microbe available on YouTube.com.
-
- During the 1970s and 1980s I identified bacteria in acid-fast
stained tissue sections from HD patients. Microphotographs of bacteria
in tissue sections of the heart, lung, lymph nodes, skin, pancreas, cerebrum,
bone and marrow from four HD patients, were reported in 1981, along with
a review of the previous literature implicating bacteria in HD [27]. Figure
1 shows bacteria identified at autopsy in the lung of a 15 year old Latina
who died of HD.
-
- In 1979 I encountered a 56-year-old white man with a
very rare HD tumor initially confined to the skin. Figure 2 shows the
bacteria deep in the skin, and identified in specially-stained acid-fast
tissue sections. Later that year, new swellings of lymph nodes were also
diagnosed as HD. Similar bacteria were observed. Despite radiation therapy
and chemotherapy, he died from cardiac arrest the following year. At autopsy,
the heart showed changes consistent with "radiation pericarditis."
Rare foci of scattered acid-fast coccoid forms were noted in the lung and
heart. The cancer was "cured" in that there was no autopsy evidence
of HD. However, microbes were still present in the lung tissue sections,
as reported in 1984, by Cantwell and Kelso [28]. More photographs of microbes
in HD can be found on the joimr.org website (http://www.joimr.org/phorum/read.php?f=2&i=108&t=108).
-
- Newer research implicating bacteria in Hodgkin's disease
-
- Could the cancer establishment, except for a few dissidents,
be wrong in ignoring and rejecting a bacterial cause of HD? In this regard,
it is important to recall that the Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded
in 2005 to two Australian researchers who discovered that stomach ulcers
were caused by bacteria that millions of people carry normally in their
stomach. For a century these ulcer-causing bacteria, now identifiable in
tissue with a special tissue stain, went undetected by physicians, all
of whom were taught that bacteria could not survive in the acid environment
of the stomach. Now a curative antibiotic treatment has been designed to
treat Helicobacter pylori infection.
-
- In 1975, using the electron microscope, Parmley et al.
showed "microorganism-like structures" in lymph nodes in some
untreated patients with HD [29]. More recently, Swiss oncologist Christian
Sauter and pathologist Michael Kurrer discovered microbe-like "intercellular
rods" and "spheres" in six HD patients [30]. The physicians
claim that many features of HD suggest a bacterial infection; and that
the epidemiology of HD also suggests a bacterial disease like TB. Sauter
and Blum also viewed regression of HD of the lung by use of prolonged
antibiotic therapy with ciprofloxacin and clarithromycin [31]. Sauter thinks
antibiotic treatment of very early Hodgkin's disease may be successful
before there is a genetic exchange between the bacteria and human cells.
-
- Why do cancer experts ignore bacteria in HD and cancer?
-
- Most people do not envision the human body as immersed
in a sea of microbes from internal and external sources; and we are told
that our only protection from the trillions of potentially dangerous bacteria
that inhabit our bodies is our immune system.
-
- Rowan Hooper, writing in Wired News about new research
at Imperial College London, notes: "Most of the cells in your body
are not your own, nor are they even human. They are bacterial. From the
invisible strands of fungi waiting to sprout between our toes, to the kilogram
of bacterial matter in our guts, we are best viewed as walking 'superorganisms,'
highly complex conglomerations of human cells, bacteria, fungi and viruses.
More than 500 different species of bacteria exist in our bodies, making
up more than 100 trillion cells. Because our bodies are made of only some
several trillion human cells, we are somewhat outnumbered by the aliens.
It follows that most of the genes in our bodies are from bacteria, too.
Luckily for us, the bacteria are on the whole commensal, sharing our food
but doing no real harm." There is also recent evidence that bacteria
and human cells constantly "swap genes", much like the AIDS retrovirus
swaps its genetic material with human cells.
-
- Despite all that has been published on the cancer microbe,
I am aware of microbiologists and pathologists and cancer experts who demand
"proof" that these tiny round microscopic forms are indeed bacteria
and infectious agents. But these forms can be seen in the earliest phases
of cancer, and when the cancer appears in new areas and, most importantly,
can be seen abundantly at autopsy. Nevertheless, most doctors are adamant
in their belief that bacteria are not involved in the cause of cancer.
(Yet, amazingly, most believe in viruses, even thought most doctors have
never seen one.) I contend that after attending medical school physicians
should be able to recognize bacteria when they see them. Surely these "forms"
reported for a century should be recognized and deserve careful study.
The disinterest of the medical and microbiologic community in investigating
bacteria in HD and other forms cancer is not in the tradition of good science.
-
- The microbiology of cancer and the Internet
-
- The bacterial cause of cancer has a rich history dating
back to the nineteenth century. Anyone interested in the bacterial cause
of cancer can now easily research it on the computer. An Internet search,
using key words such as: cancer microbe, cancer bacteria, pleomorphism,
and nanobacteria + cancer, provides a good introduction to the microbiology
of cancer. In addition, I suggest Googling cancer research workers, such
as Virginia Livingston, Erik Enby, Guenther Enderlein, Alan Cantwell, Lida
Mattman, Wilhelm Reich + T Bacilli, Raymond Royal Rife, and others.
-
- There is no longer any excuse to be ignorant of research
pointing to bacteria as a possible cause of cancer, particularly when evidence
of such bacteria resides in the medical literature. Previously, the contents
of medical journals were closed to the public because most people were
not granted access to , medical libraries. Now all that has changed. By
use of the PubMed website, published medical literature is now easily available
to everyone via the click of a mouse.
-
- If the health authorities can conduct a national search
for a boy with Hodgkin's cancer and force him to endure radiation and chemotherapy,
they can certainly can spend a little time searching for the bacteria that
are so clearly visible in Hodgkin's and other forms of cancer.
-
- REFERENCES
-
- 1. Centkowski P, Sawczuk-Chabin J, Prochorec M, Warzocha
K. Hodgkin's lymphoma and tuberculosis coexistence in cervical lymph nodes.
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- 2. Jaffe ES, Zarate-Osorno A, Kingma DW, Raffeld M, Medeiros
LJ. The interrelationship between Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.
Ann Oncol. 1994;5 Suppl 1:7-11.
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- 3. Busni N. Uber die Verwantschaft der Mycosis fungoides
und der Lymphogranulomatose. Darstellung von Mikroorganismen in Geweben
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- 4. Busni N. Ein Beitrag zur Atiologie der Lymphogranulomatose.
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- 5. Aplas V. Tierexperimentelle Untersuchungun zur Virusatiologie
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- 6. Aplas V. Weiterer Beitrag sur Atiologie der Mycosis
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- 7. Cantwell AR. Variably acid-fast pleomorphic bacteria
as a possible cause of mycosis fungoides: a report of a necropsied case
and two living patients. J Dermatol Surg Oncol. 1982 Mar;8(3):203-
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- 8. Cantwell AR. Variably acid-fast bacteria in a rare
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- 9. Wood C, Harrington W Jr. AIDS and associated malignancies.
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- 10. Cantwell AR. Kaposi's sarcoma and variably acid-fast
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- 11. Cantwell AR. Necroscopic findings of variably acid-fast
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- 12. Cantwell AR, Rowe L. African "eosinophilic bodies"
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- 13. Cantwell AR. Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare infection
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- 14. Aisenberg AC. Problems in Hodgkin's disease management.
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- Blood. 1999 Feb 1;93(3):761-79.
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Pee D, Smith SA, Van't Veer MB, Joensuu T, Storm H, Stovall M, Boice JD
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E, Anderson JA, et al. Cultural properties and pathogenicity of certain
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- 18. Alexander-Jackson E. A specific type of microorganism
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pleomorphic, intermittently acid-fast organisms isolated from mouse, rat,
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- 20. Diller IC, Diller WF. Intracellular acid-fast organisms
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- Seibert FB, Feldmann FM, Davis RL, Richmond IS: Morphological,
biological, and immunological studies on isolates from tumors and leukemic
bloods. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1970 Oct 30;174(2):690-728
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- 21. Seibert FB, Yeomans F, Baker JA, Davis RL, Diller
IC. Bacteria in tumors. Trans N Y Acad Sci. 1972 Jun;34(6):504-33.
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- 22. Seibert FB, Farrelly FK, Shepherd CC. DMSO and other
combatants against bacteria isolated from leukemia and cancer patients.Ann
N Y Acad Sci. 1967 Mar 15;141(1):175-201.
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- 23. Livingston (Wuerthele Caspe) V. Cancer, A New Breakthrough.
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-
- 24. Livingston-Wheeler VWC, Addeo E. The Conquest of
Cancer. New York:Franklin Watts; 1984.
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- 25. Cantwell A. The Cancer Microbe. Los Angeles: Aries
Rising Press; 1990.
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- 26. Cantwell A. Four Women Against Cancer. Los Angeles:
Aries Rising Press; 2005.
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- 27. Cantwell AR. Histologic observations of variably
acid-fast coccoid forms suggestive of cell wall deficient bacteria in Hodgkin's
disease: a report of four cases. Growth. 1981 Autumn;45(3):168-87.
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- 28. Cantwell AR Jr, Kelso DW. Variably acid-fast bacteria
in a fatal case of Hodgkin's disease. Arch Dermatol. 1984 Mar;120(3):401-2.
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- 29. Parmley RT, Spicer SS, Pratt-Thomas HR, Morgan SK,
Othersen HB. Microorganism-like structures in Hodgkin disease. Electron
microscopical demonstration. Arch Pathol. 1975 May;99(5):259-66.
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- 30. Sauter C, Kurrer MO. Intracellular bacteria in Hodgkin's
disease and sclerosing mediastinal B-cell lymphoma: sign of a bacterial
etiology? Swiss Med Wkly. 2002 Jun 15;132(23-24):312-5.
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- 31. Sauter C, Blum S. Regression of lung lesions in Hodgkin's
disease by antibiotics: case report and hypothesis on the etiology of Hodgkin's
disease. Am J Clin Oncol. 2003 Feb;26(1):92-4.
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- _______________
-
-
- Dr. Cantwell is the author of two books on the microbiology
of cancer: The Cancer Microbe and Four Women Against Cancer, both available
from www.amazon.com and Book Clearing House @ 1-800-431-1579.
-
- Email - alancantwell@sbcgobal.net
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- Website - www.ariesrisingpress.com
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