SEATTLE, Nov. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has received a pledge of $10 million to advance the promising field of immunotherapy research to treat and cure cancer, even in late stages.
“Our commitment to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is an educated bet on the next forefront in medical science and those who we feel are best positioned to capitalize on it,” Jackie Bezos said.
“We have been seeking significant private support to solidify the Hutchinson Center’s position as the world leader in immunotherapy research. The Bezos family has stepped up to that challenge,” said Lee Hartwell, Ph.D., Nobel laureate and president and director of the Hutchinson Center. “Thanks to the generosity of the Bezos family, we will be able to recruit and retain top immunotherapy researchers, create resources for the development of new immunological drugs and strengthen our clinical trials program to make these novel therapies more widely available to patients,” he said.
The Bezos family chose to structure the gift as a challenge in the hope that it will unite others in the community to join the cause.
The gift is the family’s largest private donation to support biomedical research.
Already Hutchinson Center scientists have demonstrated the potential of immunotherapy to save lives. In June 2008 a research team led by Cassian Yee, M.D., of the Center’s Clinical Research Division described the first successful use of a human patient’s cloned infection-fighting T cells as the sole therapy to put advanced melanoma tumors into long-term remission. Yee and colleagues are now expanding clinical trials that use T-cell therapy to treat advanced tumors.
“Our extraordinary success, coupled with new knowledge about how to improve and extend these results, has brought us to the threshold of a new era in the battle against cancer,” said Fred Appelbaum, M.D., senior vice president and director of the Center’s Clinical Research Division. “Now is the time to unleash the full potential of the immune-based approaches we have been so instrumental in discovering and developing, and the Bezos family gift will be instrumental in helping us realize this vision.”
For more information on how to support immunotherapy research at the Hutchinson Center, please visit: http://getinvolved.fhcrc.org/donateimmunotherapy
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
