Observations on the Repeated Administration of Viruses to a Patient with Acute Leukemia

Abstract

RECENT demonstrations by electron-microscopic1 2 3 and epidemiologic methods4 suggest that human acute leukemia is a viral disease. Experiments performed with mice with virus-induced leukemia show that inoculations of other viruses can ameliorate the disease.5 These findings suggest that viruses could be used to modify the disease in man either by a direct oncolytic effect or through the phenomenon of viral interference. The temporary remissions in human leukemia that occasionally follow severe viral infections6 , 7 may, if causally related, support this hypothesis.During the last hundred years many different chemical and biologic materials have been administered to patients in attempts to discover an . . .