Virginia Livingston
| Virginia Livingston | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1906 |
| Died | 1990 |
| Citizenship | American |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Cancer |
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.
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 BA 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.
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.
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