Virginia Livingston
In 1936, a time when few women went to
medical school, Virginia Livingston became an MD [after earning three different degrees from Vassar College]. Dr. Virginia Livingston had grown up being an assistant to her MD father, who did whatever was needed as the only doctor for folks living in a poor mining community.
When she looked at malignant tissue under a
microscope, she consistently found acid-fast organisms. Acid-fastness describes the way different bacteria respond to staining after they're set up on a slide. The genus Mycobacterium, which includes the species responsible for leprosy and tuberculosis are acid-fast.
Many other researchers began noting bacteria living
within cancer tissue. Surprisingly, when looked for, bacteria were always present in cancer. That said, different forms of bacteria were also being found.
Click the link below if you want to read a book about the life and research of this incredibly dedicated female physician.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1591203724?tag=bravesoftwa04-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1&language=en_US
In 1974, Livingston published a paper describing her isolation of Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin [hCG] from these same cancer bacteria.
What the heck is hCG?
If you look up ‘hCG’ you will learn that it's a hormone surrounding a growing embryo to prevent it from immune system destruction. Understand that a baby growing in Mom is only half-Mom, while the other half is Dad.
This makes the baby a foreign tissue. To protect the unborn fetus, a mist of hCG surrounds it... warding the immune system off.
It’s something like having a diplomatic passport and being stopped by a policeman. He sees the passport and apologizes for having detained you and tells you to move on. Just like that,
the immune system goes up to the fetus [or cancer mass], contacts the hCG and heads away, apologizing to the embryo [or cancer] for even approaching it.
We all know what a symbiotic relationship is: [1] Bees need flowers for nectar and flowers rely on bees for pollination
[2] The Clownfish is immune to a Sea Anemone’s poisons and lives safe from predators within the tentacles. In return, the Clownfish cleans parasites off the Sea Anemone.
The cancer tissue and the bacteria have a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria both living in and
protecting the cancer. HCG confers protection to the cancer.
In fact, testing for hCG in the blood or urine can be used to confirm and follow up on cancer treatment in humans.
https://cancer.ca/en/treatments/tests-and-procedures/human-chorionic-gonadotropin-hcg-or-b-hcg
Many researchers are quite sure that hCG producing bacteria are present in every kind of cancer, working to ward off the immune system.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128200506000229
It has been proposed that the presence of hCG on the surface of the cancer cell is a universal marker for cancer. [ Acevedo et al, 1995; Acevedo, 2002].
It’s a bit complicated but here it is anyway- the hCG on the cancer cell surface creates a greater surface negative charge than on normal
cells. That’s important because immune defense cells such as natural killer cells [NK] get repulsed by the strong negative charge of hCG.
In other words, the body’s premier defense mechanism against cancer – the immune system- is restricted from approaching and adhering to cancer cells since negative charges repel each
other.
It is now recognized that both cancer cells along with bacteria can produce hCG.
In her time, Dr. Virginia Livingston was labelled a
‘quack’ [Ya think?] and her findings were dismissed.
Now, hCG is measured to both identify cancer and follow up on cancer treatment.
Here's one
article. If you google HCG as a cancer marker you will find quite a lot of data. Some articles will say only a few types of cancer and as you continue to search, you will see many kinds of cancer are found to produce hCG.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15234236/
I’d bet that at least one person reading this article has thought, ‘So… what does this have to do with our dogs and cats – this is a human hormone.’
Not so fast.
The same thing happens in dogs and cats.
I started working with this a few decades
ago.
in fact, just recently, I had two patients I'm going to tell you about.
One elderly dog who would not survive surgery/anethesia has a mass in his
abdomen that the specialists in Florida are unsure about. Opinion is- it may be cancer or a walled off infectious reaction that's not malignant at all. This dog did not have any hCG in his urine sample, indicating- thus far- that he does not have cancer.
Another adorable white and fluffy 10 lb dog from
PA had been definitely diagnosed with Transitional Cell cancer. When her urine was checked, it was positive for hCG.
This article is not intended to promote urine testing for hCG in dogs and cats as a testing measure.
Its purpose is to let you know that a counter-full of immune boosting supplements for dogs and cats with cancer may not provide the desired effect. Your pet’s newly heightened immune system might be approaching the cancer and... in short order.... apologizing and moving off. More so, the negatively charged cell surface will actually repel those natural killer cells.
Many years ago, I did a 5-year study with an MD in Washington State who had worked with Virginia Livingston. Using a special vaccine for pets and people, we did see some cancers shrink significantly. Unfortunately, it did not seem to cure the pet and eventually the grew back.
Interestingly, every pet in the study needed to get a full blood test, including a thyroid test.
I found that 9 out of 10 of the large breed dogs with osteosarcoma were hypothyroid, as were many
other cancer patients in the study.
They looked just fine. In other words, they were not fat nor sluggish, etc. Yet they were grossly hypothyroid.
The next topic in the Cancer Series is going to be about hypothyroidism and cancer!
