William Coley - Legacy

Legacy

Coley's Toxins are currently available in several countries. One reformulation of Coley's Toxins is called Coley Fluid.

Drug makers including Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis also have a renewed interest in modern versions of Coley's Toxins; Pfizer has acquired the Coley Pharmaceutical Group, set up in 1997

The historical results of Coley vaccine therapy are difficult to compare with modern results. Coley's studies were not well controlled and factors such as length of treatment and fever level were not adequately documented. Many of his patients had also received radiation and sometimes surgery. According to the analyses of Coley Nauts and Starnes, treatment success correlated with length of therapy and the fevers induced by the toxins. The recently formed non-profit Global Cures Foundation plans to fund research trials of Coley's Toxins in the near future.

There were, however, many different formulations of Coley Vaccine. These varied greatly in effectiveness, and there were many different treatment protocols that also varied greatly in effectiveness.