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The
Russel Body
The Forgotten Clue to the Bacterial Cause of
Cancer
©
2003, by Alan Cantwell, Jr. M.D.
The
twentieth century was indeed the century of
Modern Medicine with tremendous strides made in
the understanding and control of infectious
diseases, as well as the introduction of
life-saving antibiotics and vaccines.
Unfortunately, along with these advances came
the perils of genetic engineering, the
increasing threat of newly emerging viruses,
bio-warfare, and bio-terrorism
Despite these scientific achievements, the cause
of cancer remains a mystery. Scientists suspect
genetic susceptibility, possible cancer-causing
viruses, and environmental factors might play a
role in some cancers, but none of these factors
explain why millions of people die yearly from a
variety of malignancies.
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William
Russell
1852-1940, as pictured in The
British Medical Journal, August 24,
1940
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How could scientists put men on the moon, but
remain so ignorant about cancer and its origin?
How can the infectious causes of tuberculosis,
leprosy, syphilis, smallpox, polio, malaria, and
other viral and bacterial and parasitic diseases
be understood, but the cause of cancer be
unknown? Could the cause of cancer conceivably
be an infectious agent that has been overlooked,
ignored, or unrecognized by medical doctors in
the twentieth century? Could the germ of cancer
be hidden in the Russell body? - a large
microscopic form known to every pathologist for
over a century!
On December 3, 1890 William Russell, a
pathologist in the School of Medicine at the
Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, gave an address to
the Pathological Society of London in which he
outlined his histopathologic findings of "a
characteristic organism of cancer" that he
observed microscopically in fuchsine-stained
tissue sections from all forms of cancer that he
examined, as well as in certain cases of
tuberculosis, syphilis and skin infection.
The parasite was seen within the tissue cells
(intracellular) and outside the cells
(extracellular). The size of Russell's parasite
ranged from barely visible, up to "half again as
large as a red blood corpuscle." The largest
round forms were easily seen microscopically.
The large size of some of these bodies suggested
a fungal or yeast-like parasite. Russell
provisionally classified the parasite as a
possible "blastomycete" (a type of fungus); and
called the forms "fuchsine bodies" because of
their bluish-red staining qualities.
Microbiology was still in its infancy in
Russell's era, and it was generally thought that
each microbe could only give rise to a single
disease. Thus, the idea of a cancer germ
(especially one that could also be identified in
TB and syphilis) was received cautiously. Nine
years later in 1899, in yet another report on
"The parasite of cancer" appearing in The Lancet
(April 29), Russell admitted that finding cancer
parasites in diseases other than cancer was
indeed a "stumbling block." By this time a
considerable number of scientists concluded that
Russell bodies were merely the result of
cellular degeneration of one kind or another.
Furthermore, no consistent microbe was cultured
from tumors; and the inoculation of these
microbes into animals produced conflicting and
often negative results.
Russell was trained as a pathologist, not as a
microbiologist, and he avoided getting into the
bacteriologic controversies regarding various
microbes grown from cancer. He simply concluded,
"It seems almost needless to add that there
remains abundant work to be done in this
important and attractive field."
After three years' work at the New York State
Pathological Laboratory of the University of
Buffalo, Harvey Gaylord confirmed Russell's
research in a 36 page report titled "The
protozoon of cancer", published in May, 1901, in
the American Journal of the Medical Sciences.
Gaylord found the small forms and the large sacs
characteristic of Russell bodies in every cancer
he examined. Some large spherical bodies were
four times the diameter of a leukocyte (white
blood cell). Red blood cells measure about 7
micron in diameter and leukocytes are 2 to 3
times larger than red blood cells. Thus, some of
the bodies that Gaylord observed attained the
amazing size of around 50 micron in diameter. In
addition, he found evidence of internal
segmentation within the larger bodies "after the
manner recognized in malarial parasites." The
tiniest forms appeared the size of ordinary
staphylococci.
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Russell
bodies in a lymph node of Hodgkin's
disease. Gram's stain, magnified
1000 times, (in oil).
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Russell's 1899 paper ended his writings of a
cancer parasite, but his discovery quickly
became known to pathologists as Russell bodies.
These bodies continue to fascinate researchers
and physicians (like myself) up to the present
time.
When Russell died at the age of 89 in 1940, the
British Medical Journal published a large
obituary noting that he was universally
respected and embued with the dignity and
highest ideals of his profession, and that he
had served at one time as President of the Royal
College of Physicians. No mention was made of
his "parasites" or his "bodies", except to
remark that "in his earlier years Russell
devoted much time to the study of the cancer
cell." Similarly, a large obituary appeared in
the Edinburgh Medical Journal along with a
full-page photo. His published books on Clinical
Methods and widely read texts on circulation and
gastro-intestinal diseases were cited, but not a
word about his discovery in cancer.
The heresy of "the cancer microbe"
By the early part of the twentieth century the
top cancer experts had all rejected so-called
"cancer parasites" as the cause of cancer. The
most influential physician to speak against it
was James Ewing, an American pathologist and
author of the widely-read textbook, Neoplastic
Diseases. In 1919 Ewing wrote that "few
competent observers consider it (the parasitic
theory) as a possible explanation in cancer."
According to Ewing and other authorities, cancer
did not act like an infection. Therefore,
microbes could not possibly cause cancer. He
concluded, "The general facts of the genesis of
tumors are strongly against the possibility of a
parasitic origin."
As a result, the parasitic theory was totally
discarded and few doctors dared to contradict
Ewing's dogma by continuing to search for an
infectious agent in cancer. Nevertheless, a few
die-hard physicians remained convinced microbes
were at the root cause of cancer and wrote about
it convincingly in medical journals. The long
history of this research is recorded in my book,
The Cancer Microbe (1990) and anyone with
internet access can do a Google search (type in
"cancer microbe") and obtain a wealth of
information on the microbiology of cancer.
Another excellent history of cancer microbiology
and the suppression of this controversial
research is contained in David Hess' Can
Bacteria Cause Cancer? (1997).
n the 1920s James Young, an obstetrician from
Scotland, repeatedly grew pleomorphic (having
many forms) bacteria from various cancers. The
microbes had a "specific life cycle" and "spore
stages" comprised of exceedingly tiny and barely
visible spores. In the laboratory these tiny
spores transformed into larger coccoid (round)
forms, rod-forms and yeast-like forms (similar
in size to Russell bodies). John Nuzum, a
Chicago physician, reported a pleomorphic coccus
he repeatedly isolated from breast cancer. The
tiniest forms were virus-like and passed through
a filter designed to hold back bacteria.
In 1925 Northwest Medicine published two papers
by Michael Scott, a Montana surgeon who learned
about the cancer microbe in TJ Glover's lab in
1921. Scott's microbe was similar to Young's.
The parasite had a life cycle composed of three
stages: a coccus, a rod, and a "spore sac"
stage. Scott believed cancer was an infection
like tuberculosis and attempted a vaccine
treatment, but his treatment methods were
quickly suppressed by the medical
establishment.
In the 1930s in Germany the controversial
Wilhelm von Brehmer described microbes in the
blood of cancer patients, evoking the wrath of
his scientific colleagues and prompting an
intervention by Adolf Hitler. (See Proctor's The
Nazi War on Cancer [1999]) Georges
Mazet, a French physician, also found
pleomorphic bacteria in Hodgkin's disease in
1941. Hodgkin's is a type of lymphoma cancer
involving the lymphatic system. Mazet later
reported similar acid-fast (red staining)
bacteria in many different kinds of cancer,
including leukemia.
In the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, a quartet of women
further refined the microbiology of cancer,
emphasizing the extreme pleomorphism of the
organism and its detection in tissue with the
acid-fast stain. The published research of
Virginia Livingston, Eleanor Alexander-Jackson,
Irene Diller and Florence Seibert, is essential
reading for the most updated understanding of
the microbiology of cancer.
In the late 1970s Guido Tedeschi and other
Italian microbiologists at the University of
Camerino discovered "granules" in the red blood
cells of healthy and ill people that turned out
to be bacteria that could be cultured in the
laboratory. Some of the staphylococcal and
corynebacteria-like bacteria cultured from the
red blood cells were acid-fast and cell
wall-deficient, a staining and growth
characteristic shared with the cancer microbe.
This research has been confirmed by newer
studies suggesting that bacteria reside in blood
from healthy as well as sick individuals. These
findings of tiny blood bacteria (nanobacteria)
provide further evidence to support the theory
that microbes can cause cancer.
Some other well-known scientists in the field of
cancer microbiology include Gunther Enderlein,
Royal Raymond Rife, Gaston Naessens and Wilhelm
Reich. All have web sites devoted to their
cancer research.
Russell bodies and their Origin
More than a century has passed since Russell's
discovery and although electron microscopes
(which have been used since the 1950s) have the
ability to magnify objects tens of thousands of
times, the significance and function of his
bodies still remains unknown.
What is well-known is that Russell bodies can be
found, not only in cancer, but in the majority
of inflamed tissues throughout the body.
Distinguishing large Russell bodies from actual
fungal forms of Blastomyces can still be
difficult, particularly when a pathologist
encounters a true case of fungal infection due
to Blastomyces.
In 1954 RG White, in "Observations on the
formation and nature of Russell bodies",
produced Russell bodies in animals by injecting
them with different species of bacteria. He then
studied the ensuing development of these bodies
in the spleen, lymph nodes and plasma cells of
the injected animals. Plasma cells are
specialized forms of white blood cells that
normally produce antibodies.
EM Schleicher, in his 1965 paper on "Giant
Russell bodies", discusses the various theories
of origin. Possibilities include origin from the
lymphocyte, origin in plasma cells with later
degeneration, origin from the mitochondria of
cells, and even an origin from a red blood cell
(erythrocyte) swallowed up by a plasma cell.
Most researchers currently believe Russell
bodies are essentially immunoglobulins (proteins
that acts as antibodies), but an electron
microscopic study by SM Hsu et al. in 1981 has
cast some doubt on this belief.
None of these studies mention the possibility
that Russell bodies might represent unusual
large growth forms of bacteria. However, if
Russell bodies prove to be tiny intracellular
microbes that grow and enlarge within
leukocytes, it would be natural to expect these
white blood cells (especially the plasma cell)
to produce an antibody attack against these
invading organisms, resulting in the production
of immunoglobulin-coated cells and
organisms.
Bacterial transformation into Giant forms
(L-form "large bodies')
There are many different kinds of bacteria but
only one type that has been consistently
observed and studied in cancer for over a
century. The cancer microbe has many forms, some
of which appear as ordinary staphylococci or
larger yeast-like forms that further enlarge to
the size of Russell bodies. As mentioned, some
Russell bodies enlarge to truly gigantic
proportions, one hundred times the diameter of
small cocci. One can liken this growth potential
to an empty balloon that is then blown up to
full-size. In addition, the microbe has
exceedingly small filterable submicroscopic
forms approaching the size of viruses, visible
only by use of the electron microscope.
Scientists who have extensively studied the
cancer microbe claim it most closely resembles
the type bacteria that cause tuberculosis and
leprosy- the so-called mycobacteria.
Mycobacteria are closely related to fungi; and
some microbiologists claim mycobacteria are
essentially derived from the "higher" fungi.
"Myco" in Greek means fungus. Ergo, mycobacteria
are considered fungus-like bacteria.
During the 1960s microbiologist Louis Dienes
popularized the terms "cell wall-deficient" and
"L form" to encompass bacterial growth stages
that exist at one extreme as small filterable
virus-sized forms, and at the opposite extreme
as large (50 micron or larger) spherical forms
that he termed "large bodies." These so-called
large bodies are what I believe Russell bodies
represent.
It must be understood that microbes are
partially "classified" in microbiology according
to size. Viruses are submicroscopic and cannot
be visualized with an ordinary light microscope.
Unlike bacteria, viruses can only replicate
inside a cell. Bacteria can be seen
microscopically, but smaller submicroscopic and
filterable bacterial forms (now known as
nanobacteria) are also known. Fungi and yeast
forms are much larger than bacteria, and "mold"
can obviously be seen with the naked eye.
Larger Russell bodies are indeed similar in size
to certain spore forms of fungi. However, what
is generally not appreciated is that bacteria
can grow into fungal-sized large bodies,
depending on certain laboratory conditions.
Thus, bacteria in this form can easily be
mistaken for fungi and yeast organisms.
Giant-sized L-forms greatly resemble large-sized
Russell bodies. The century-old history of
research into atypical growth forms of bacteria
is reviewed in Lida Mattman's seminal text, Cell
Wall Deficient Forms: Stealth Pathogens (1993).
A knowledge of this somewhat esoteric branch of
microbiology is essential to understand the
proposed microbiology of cancer.
The most impressive electron microscopic
photographs I have ever observed of cell
wall-deficient L-forms of mycobacteria were
taken by the late C Xalabarder of Barcelona. In
a series of papers and books (1953-1976)
published in Spanish (with English-language
summaries) by the Publicaciones del Instituto
Antituberculoso "Francisco Moragas", Xalabarder
totally transformed my concept about how
tuberculosis-causing mycobacteria reproduce and
grow and drastically change their appearance. In
medical school we were taught that "simple"
bacteria simply divide in two equal halves by
"binary fission". However, nothing could be
further from the truth, and it is only by a
refutation of this simplistic concept that a
serious study of the microbiology of cancer can
be undertaken.
Tuberculosis and Cancer
Because cancer is produced by a microbe similar
to the bacteria that cause TB, much can be
learned from experiments like those performed by
Xalabarder in 1967. Using "atypical
mycobacteria" grown from TB patients who had
taken long courses of drug therapy, Xalabarder
then injected these bacteria into guinea-pigs
and rabbits. Amazingly, he was able to
experimentally produce lesions which
microscopically resembled cancer! He also
produced experimental lesions characteristic of
so called "collagen disease"- a type of lesion
seemingly unrelated to cancer.
During the 1960s I discovered unusual
pleomorphic acid-fast bacteria in a collagen
disease called scleroderma, and later in another
collagen disease called lupus erythematosus. The
germs I grew from these patients closely
resembled scleroderma microbes that were
reported by Virginia Livingston in 1947, and
which subsequently led to her discovery of
similar acid-fast microbes in cancer.
In 1969 Xalabarder manipulated different
developmental stages of TB bacteria and
inoculated them into one thousand guinea pigs.
In the process, he produced the microscopic
picture of sarcoidosis in the animals.
Sarcoidosis is a human disease closely related
to TB but one in which TB germs cannot be found.
Xalabarder's most impressive sarcoid lesions
were produced by inoculating sputum specimens
from TB patients who "converted", meaning that
their TB bacteria could no longer be cultured
from their sputum. Controversy over the cause of
sarcoidosis is still not settled, although I
reported bacteria similar to cancer microbes in
this disease in the 1980s.
The most spectacular electron microphotographs
of cell wall-deficient mycobacteria are
presented in Xalabarder's L-forms of
mycobacteria and chronic nephritis (1970). In
the earliest growth stages of mycobacteria in
culture the smallest elements appear as tiny
submicroscopic forms visualized only with the
electron microscope. These filterable forms of
tuberculosis bacteria - the so-called
"tuberculosis virus"- have been known to cause
cancer in animals since the 1920s. By adding
antibiotics to the lab culture media Xalabarder
was able to induce many unusual growth forms of
tuberculosis bacteria. Using serial images, he
was able to trace the development of these tiny
submicroscopic forms up to the size of ordinary
cocci - and then up to the size of "large body"
forms reaching and even surpassing the size of
red blood cells. Some of the large bodies of
mycobacteria also exhibit internal structure,
similar to what Gaylord noted in his Russell
body research.
Cancer and Bacteria
Although the idea of a cancer microbe is medical
heresy, there is ample data to show that cancer
patients are highly prone to bacterial
infection. A PubMed computer search
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi)
of "bacteria + cancer" elicits 49, 244 citations
contained within 2,463 web pages. According to a
2003 article by Vento and Cainelli, patients
with cancer who are undergoing chemotherapy are
highly susceptible to almost any type of
bacterial or fungal infection.
Why are physicians, and especially pathologists
and bacteriologists, so unaware, so
disinterested, or so antagonistic to credible
cancer microbe research? Why have pathologists
failed to consider Russell bodies as large forms
of bacteria?
For over 30 years I studied various forms of
cancer and skin diseases "of unknown origin", as
well as autopsy cases of cancer, lupus,
scleroderma, and AIDS. In all these diseases I
was able to detect bacteria, although
pathologists would never mention bacteria in any
of their official biopsy reports. In my
experience, they simply could not conceive of
cancer and collagen disease (and AIDS) as a
bacterial infection, nor did they seem to be
aware of bacteriology reports pertaining to
"large bodies" and pathologic effects produced
by the "tuberculosis virus." In short, they were
trained to see and report only the typical
rod-shaped acid-fast (red-stained) "typical"
form of mycobacteria, , but they were not
trained to look for or to recognize other growth
forms of the same bacteria that might be hidden
in their pathologic tissue specimens.
When objects like Russell bodies are observed in
a wide variety of diseases and in "normal"
tissue, the significance is lessened. Doctors
expect "normal" tissue to be free of microbes. I
suppose they also conclude that Russell bodies
cannot be an infectious agent because it would
be impossible for an infectious agent to appear
in so many different kinds of diseases and in so
many different forms of cancer.
For most of the last century stomach ulcers were
thought to be non-infectious because
pathologists could not identify bacteria in the
ulcers and because doctors believed bacteria
could not live in the acid environment of the
stomach. This thinking all changed gradually
after 1982 when Barry Marshall, an Australian
physician, proved most stomach ulcers were
caused by a microbe called Helicobacter pylori,
which could be identified microscopically with
special tissue staining techniques in ulcer
tissue. On the other hand, many people normally
carry this stomach microbe without any ill
effects. Not surprisingly, pathologists are now
reporting numerous Russell bodies in plasma
cells in some ulcer patients, giving rise to a
previously unrecognized tissue reaction called
"Russell cell gastritis."
Russell bodies and bacteria
When bacteria are threatened by the immune
system or by antibiotics they may lose their
cell-wall and assume a different growth form
that renders them less susceptible to attack by
the immune system. Some Russell bodies elicit
little or no inflammatory cell response. This
lack of cellular response is yet another reason
why physicians have a hard time believing
Russell bodies could be microbes.
I have observed the largest and most complex
Russell bodies in tissue where there was almost
a total lack of inflammation. My photographs of
such "large bodies", some with obvious internal
structure, that I observed in patients with
scleroderma and pseudoscleroderma, were
published in the American Journal of
Dermatopathology in 1980. The first case of
fatal scleroderma I studied in 1963 had numerous
"large bodies" in the fat layer of the diseased
skin that were unlike anything ever seen in
dermatology. The patient had been hospitalized
for pulmonary tuberculosis 7 years before
developing scleroderma. The mystery of these
"yeast-like" bodies deep in his skin was solved
years later when I first learned about the
existence of "large body" forms of Mycobacterium
tuberculosis. When this patient died,
Mycobacterium fortuitum, an "atypical" form of
mycobacteria was cultured from his scleroderma
tissue.
Bacteria are vital for our survival. They are
hardy and the bacteria we carry will surely
outlive us. The bacteria that cause cancer are
the "simple" bacteria we carry with us. The
cancer microbe is not an exotic microbe nor a
rare one. However, bacteria can change form as
the environment in our bodies changes. There is
indeed a delicate balance between our bacteria
and our immune system which allows these
bacteria to live in harmony with us.
But when dis-ease occurs these microbes become
aggressive, giving rise to a host of diseases,
some of which are cancerous, and others that are
inflammatory, degenerative, or simply
transitory. Another reason for physicians to
doubt that a single type of germ could cause
such a variety of pathologic effects.
Bacteria are ubiquitous and so are Russell
bodies. And if Russell bodies prove to be
bacteria, the reason for this becomes
obvious.
The Russell body and the origin of
cancer
In 1981 King and Eisenberg's article on
"Russell's fuchsin body: 'The characteristic
organism of cancer' " appeared in the American
Journal of Dermatopathology. They reconfirmed
that "Russell bodies have now been shown to be
immunoglobulins." They remarked that Russell was
not the first to describe them; and that similar
bodies were reported by Cornil and Alvarez in
rhinoscleroma five years earlier in a French
journal in 1885. Declaring it ironic that these
"bodies should bear the name of a man who so
thoroughly misunderstood them", the authors
ended by stating: "Hence, when the term Russell
body is used today, one should be aware that the
eponym is as inaccurate as was Russell's
perception of their significance."
Unlike King and Eisenberg, I believe Russell was
right on the mark. There is a parasite in
cancer. It has been studied and reported by
various scientists throughout the world for many
decades, and a wealth of scientific information
on the cancer microbe is available in medical
libraries. For those with Internet capability,
the words "cancer microbe" typed into Google.com
will give instant access to a treasure trove of
information on the subject.
There is no secret to cancer. In my view, the
cause is staring us right in the face in the
form of the Russell body. William Russell
understood very well in the nineteenth century
what medical science in the twenty-first century
has yet to discover.
Alan Cantwell, M.D. is a retired dermatologist
and cancer researcher. His book, The Cancer
Microbe, is available through Internet sources.
A number of his full-length papers on the
microbiology of cancer can be found on the net
at the Journal of Independent Medical Research
web site (www.joimr.org/)
Email: alanrcan@aol.com
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"Most
physicians are wrong in their understanding of most
diseases, most of the time."----Cantwell's law
View
all articles by Alan Cantwell, Jr.
M.D.
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