Local News in Brief : Experimental Cancer Aid

Three private hospitals in the Los Angeles area announced Tuesday that they are offering an experimental cancer therapy to patients for whom traditional approaches have failed and who are willing to pay up to $35,000 for the unproven treatment.

The so-called biotherapy being offered by St. John’s Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks Community Hospital and the Hospital of the Good Samaritan in Los Angeles involves the use of substances produced by mammalian cells that are then engineered and used to induce an immune response.

The experimental therapy is being pioneered nationwide on a private level by a Tennessee firm, Biotherapeutics. The firm’s controversial approach--billing patients for experimental therapy--is being overseen by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The federal government is also sponsoring trials of the treatment at academic centers nationwide.