Virginia Livingston (1906–1990) was an American physician and cancer researcher who advocated the unsupported theory that a specific species of bacteria she named Progenitor cryptocides was the primary cause of cancer in humans. Her theories about P. cryptocides have not been duplicated by researchers, and a clinical trial of her therapy did not show any efficacy in the treatment of cancer. The American Cancer Society, which did not support Livingston's treatment protocol for cancer, categorically denied her theory of cancer origins.
Life Virginia Livingston was born Virginia Wuerthele in Meadville, Pennsylvania in 1906. Both her father and grandfather were physicians and she also pursued a degree in medicine. Prior to attending medical school, Livingston earned three AB degrees in English, history, and economics from Vassar College. She then attended New York University, Bellevue Medical College and in 1936, received her degree in medicine. She was one of four women in her graduating class. Shortly after graduation, Livingston became the first female resident physician at a New York hospital where she was assigned to treat prostitutes infected with venereal diseases. While there, Livingston became interested in the study of tuberculosis and leprosy, and later scleroderma, a disease affecting the tissues and skin. After studying scleroderma tissues with the darkfield microscope, she claimed to find an acid-fast organism that consistently appeared in her slides. Thinking that scleroderma had some characteristics that were like cancer, Livingston then began studying malignant tissues and subsequently claimed to find evidence of acid-fast organisms in every sample. It was this early research that prompted the young physician to devote her career to the study of a specific microorganism involved in cancer.
Early research In 1946, Livingston published a paper in which she stated she had established that a bacterium was a causative agent in scleroderma. In 1947, she cultured a mycobacteria-like organism in human cancer and, according to her peer-reviewed paper, fulfilled Koch's postulates establishing an apparent cause and effect. In 1949, Livingston was named chief of the Rutgers-Presbyterian Hospital Laboratory for Proliferative Diseases in New Jersey where she continued her cancer research. It was during this time that Livingston formed a lifetime association with Dr. Eleanor Alexander-Jackson of Cornell University. Jackson's specialty was the study of mycobacteria and particularly, the species responsible for tuberculosis. Jackson had developed specific culture media for growing the microbe and a technique for observing it known as the "triple stain" because she felt this microbe wasn't amenable to conventional modes of culturing and microscopy. Livingston and Jackson also collaborated on work on the Rous sarcoma virus (RSV) at Lederle Laboratories. Livingston claimed that when RSV cultures were passed through special filters designed to hold back all but the smallest virus particles, she was able to grow bacteria; this was considered a controversial claim since bacteria are considerably larger than viruses and should not exist in filtered RSV serum. After healthy animals were exposed to the Rous bacterial filtrates, Livingston and Jackson claimed that cancerous lesions developed. This finding led to speculation that such bacteria could be transmitted from poultry to humans and this became a primary reason Livingston ordered her cancer patients to not eat poultry while they underwent her treatment. Scientists have since rejected Livingston's findings, arguing there is no evidence supporting her claim. In 1956, Livingston published a paper suggesting a causative bacterium in Wilson's disease. In 1965, she reported isolation of a variably acid-fast mycobacterium in patients with myocardial vascular disease. During this time, she also began a small test trial of anti-bacterial vaccines made from the body fluids of cancer patients and reported moderate success. Between the years 1965-1968, Livingston received Fleet Foundation and Kerr Grants, and continued her investigation into a bacterial cause of human cancer. She also published a paper describing the presence of a substance identified as Actinomycin-D which she said could damage chromosomes and promote cancer. In 1969, Livingston and her husband Afton Munk Livingston, established the Livingston-Wheeler Clinic in San Diego, California, and began formally treating cancer patients. The therapeutic program included autogenous vaccine made from killed bacteria derived from body fluids; a low sodium diet consisting of organic foods, fruits and vegetables high in a substance Livingston called "abscisic acid"; immune enhancing vaccines (gamma globulin, BCG) and antibiotics. Livingston prescribed antibiotics after cross testing them with patients' cultures to see which had the most antibacterial activity. Livingston also recommended that patients not consume poultry products based on her earlier research. After her husband's death, she married Owen Webster Wheeler, one of the first patients she claims to have successfully treated for head and neck cancer. Shortly after, the clinic was renamed the Livingston-Wheeler clinic. In 1970, Livingston officially named her cancer organism Progenitor cryptocides, and presented her findings to the New York Academy of Sciences. According to her biography, Progenitor was a pseudonym meaning "ancestral" and the name was chosen because Livingston believed the microbe existed as early as the Precambrian era, and it was an endogenous component of life itself. The name "cryptocides" was a Greek and Latin word which meant "hidden killer". The microbe was classified under the order Actinomycetales. Livingston described Progenitor as an intermittently acid-fast mycobacterium that displayed highly variable growth cycles. According to Livingston the microbe was pleomorphic, and had cell wall-deficient and filter-passing forms resembling viruses, with the ability to adopt a variety of shapes including spindles, rods and cocci.
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