Heather Bligh was Springer's beautiful wife. When she was found to have metastatic breast cancer in the 1970s, Springer devised an immunological treatment for her. Springer has some advantages that other pioneers might envy. He funds his laboratory in part with his own inheritance from the famous German publishing company, Springer-Verlag. After ten years, the survival figures of women receiving conventional treatment drop by another half.
Antigens are substances that elicit an immune response.
Springer's method is an active, specific vaccination, which stimulates the immune system to fight carcinoma. Salmonella typhi itself contains T and Tn antigens, and stimulates the immune system. This is a result of the cancer cell's incomplete assembly of normal cell membrane structures. The body's defense system naturally wants to fight against these incomplete abnormal structures the way it would invading viruses and microbes, because it recognizes them as something foreign. Springer's treatment basically augments the fighting power of the body by presenting it with fresh doses of a cancer-like antigen derived from normal cells.