Experimental Cancer Research Lab to Open in San Diego
A Tennessee-based medical institute that offers experimental cancer therapies to wealthy patients plans to open a new research laboratory here, it was announced Thursday.
The new facility of Biotherapeutics Inc. of Franklin, Tenn., will be headed by Dr. Robert O. Dillman of the UC San Diego Medical School; he was also named Thursday to direct the experimental cancer program at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla.
Biotherapeutics, set up in May 1985, has proved controversial because it represents a major departure from established procedures for testing new cancer drugs and therapies. Clinical trials traditionally have been financed by government health agencies, private groups such as the American Cancer Society, and drug companies.
The costs of treatment at the Franklin laboratory can run as high as $35,000, depending on the particular therapy selected for the patient.
The firm’s founder is Dr. Robert K. Oldham, a former leading researcher at the National Cancer Institute. He told The Times earlier this year that advanced cancer patients should not be deprived of therapies that scientists believe to be promising--as long as standard precautions are taken to inform patients of the risks.
New Class of Therapies
Biotherapeutics specializes in the new class of therapies known as biological response modifiers, which attempt to enhance the body’s natural capacity to fight cancer. Oldham established and headed the program in that area at the NCI, where he worked until 1984.
Dillman, the new director, has had extensive laboratory and clinical experience with monoclonal antibodies and other such modifiers.
Oldham’s method of attempting to individually tailor treatments for patients also goes against the grain of standard experiments in cancer therapies. Researchers generally select antibodies for their specificity in attacking a type of cancer rather than a particular patient’s cancer. But Biotherapeutics bases its program on the concept that cancers among people are more different than alike and that each tumor in each patient is different.
But NCI scientists have questioned whether customizing treatments such as monoclonal antibodies is possible or makes any difference in helping a patient.
