• Gryphon Login
  • MyCourses
  • Alumni
  • UCLA Health
  • Contact Us
Prospective Students

Prospective Students

Prospective Students
  • Admissions
    Procedure & Timelines
    • Admissions Timeline
    • Admissions Procedure
    • Basis of Selection
    • COVID-19 Impacts on Admissions
    • Housing Information
    • Interview Process
    • Prerequisites
    General Information
    • Statement of Diversity
    • Mission Statement
    • Curriculum Resdesign
    • Honor Code
    • FAQs
    • Admissions Brochure
    • Admissions Timeline
    • Admission Procedure
    • Basis of Selection
    • Competencies
    • COVID-19 Impact on Admissions
    • DACA Applicants
    • DGSOM Mission Statement
    • FAQs
    • Honor Code
    • Housing Information
    • Interview Process
    • Statement of Diversity
    • Virtual Events
  • Outreach & Pipeline Programs
    Summer Pre-Health and Postbaccaluareate Programs
    • UCLA SHPEP
    • UCLA PREP
    • UCLA RAP
    Outreach and Recruitment
    • Conferences and Events
    • Stay Connected!
    • Contact Us
    • Conferences & Outreach Events
    • Summer Pre-Health and Postbaccalaureate Programs
    • Contact Us
    • Stay Connected
  • Financial Aid & Scholarships
  • Degrees & Programs
  • Curriculum
  • Student Life
    Why Choose UCLA
    • Research
    • Clinical Work
    • Service Opportunities
    • Global Health Impact
    • Why You'll Love LA
    Campus Life
    • Student Organizations
    • Annual Events
    • Day in the Life
    • Around Campus
    • Photo Galleries
    • Medical and Research News
    • Medical Student Council
    • Geffy Guide
    • Search Campus and Health News
    • Service Opportunities
    • Global Health Impact
    • Why You'll Love LA
    • Photo Galleries
    • Day in the Life
    • Around Campus
    • Medical and Research News
    • Search Campus and Health News
  • How to Apply
  • Gryphon Login
  • MyCourses
  • Alumni
  • UCLA Health
  • Contact Us

Prospective Students

Search Campus and Health News

Search Campus and Health News

Search Campus and Health News

  • Health News
  • A Day in the Life
  • Around Campus
  • Medical and Research News
  • Health News
  • A Day in the Life
  • Around Campus
  • Medical and Research News
  1. Home
  2. Prospective Students
  3. Student Life
  4. Search Campus and Health News

Search Campus and Health News

Share this

View of Life

Title

How a Homemaker Pioneered Immunotherapy Research

View of Life

Date
07/30/2019
Article
Helen Coley Nauts

1930s, New York, New York

Helen Coley Nauts was sorting through her late father’s papers when she learned he had gotten the immune system to fight cancer. 

Her father, Dr. William B. Coley, had been searching medical records for a way to treat sarcoma (a bone cancer that had taken one of his favorite patients) when he noticed that one sarcoma patient had recovered after contracting a bacterial infection. 

Coley began experiments to see if infections could help patients fight cancer. 

Coley's results, while encouraging, failed to gain traction in the medical community.  His daughter decided to change that. 

Fighting for Better Cancer Treatments

1930s - 1953, New York, New York

Receptor blocking drugs

As Helen read and reread her father’s work, two things became clear: 

   1. His discovery had the potential to save lives.    

   2. She, despite being a homemaker with no medical education, had to do something about it. 

Determined to help find new cancer treatments, Helen spent all her waking hours looking for experts to continue her father’s work. “I can't play, because people are dying when I'm not working,” Helen's daughter recalls her mother saying. 

Despite Helen’s passion, few people took her seriously, pointing out her lack of training and education. Helen refused to take "no" for an answer. 

In 1953, after advocating for over 10 years, Helen worked with Oliver R. Grace Sr. to open the Cancer Research Institute, an organization dedicated to exploring the immune system's ability to fight cancer.

Immunotherapy: A Revolutionary Cancer Treatment 

Present Day, Los Angeles, California

Receptor blocking drugs

Today, researchers at UCLA and around the world have found ways to spur the immune system to fight cancer using immunotherapy treatments. 

One UCLA researcher, Dr. Antoni Ribas, found that combining immunotherapies helped patients fight otherwise untreatable cancers. His team recently pinpointed a three-drug combination effective against advanced melanoma. 

Enthusiasm for immunotherapy grows stronger every day thanks to the curiosity of Dr. William B. Coley (today called the Father of Immunotherapy) and the determination of his daughter, Helen Coley Nauts (the unofficial mother of immunotherapy). 

  • Beyond Magic Bullets: Helen Coley Nauts and the Battle for Immunotherapy
  • The Toxins of William B. Coley and the Treatment of Bone and Soft-Tissue Sarcomas
  • History - William Bradley Coley
  • The T-Cell Army
  • The Treatment of Malignant Tumors by Bacterial Toxins as Developed by the Late William B. Coley, MD, Reviewed in the Light of Modern Research
  • Germ of an Idea: William Coley's Cancer-Killing Toxins
Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Twitter Subscribe to Our Videos on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Connect with Us on LinkedIn Follow us on Pinterest Follow us on Flickr Follow us on Sharecare
Top 10 U.S. Medical Schools
  • Giving
  • Publications
  • Newsroom
  • Weekly Digest
  • Directory
  • Contact Us
  • Diversity
  • Emergency
  • Maps & Directions
  • UC Regents
  • Abuse Free
  • Volunteer
  • Biomed Library
  • Disability Resources
  • UCLA Health
  • Smoke-Free
  • Sitemap
  • Terms of Use
Top 10 U.S. Medical Schools
Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Twitter Subscribe to Our Videos on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Connect with Us on LinkedIn Follow us on Pinterest Follow us on Flickr Follow us on Sharecare