The Region : City of Hope Chosen to Test Treatment

The City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte is one of six centers in the United States named by the National Cancer Institute to test a new experimental treatment on patients with advanced melanoma, colo-rectal or kidney cancer who have failed to respond to standard therapy. The treatment consists of removing certain white blood cells and treating them with interleukin-2, a protein produced by the immune system, and then reinfusing the activated blood cells into the patients. An initial trial with interleukin-2 late last year at the National Cancer Institute produced promising results and led to the upcoming trial, which will involve a total of 300 patients at the six centers. Local patients may call the City of Hope at (818) 359-1466 or (800) 423-7119. The only other West Coast center is at UC San Francisco.