Grant awarded to PCI for study of enhancement of body's own cancer-killing ability. (Pittsburgh Cancer Institute) (Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.)

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company has announced it has awarded a no-strings-attached $500,000 cancer research grant to the five-year-old Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (PCI), a leader in the use of biological therapies in treating cancer.

Biological therapies will become a standard part of cancer therapy by the year 2000, predicts Ronald Herberman, M.D., a world-renowned immunologist and director of PCI. According to Dr. Herberman, who discovered immune system cells that can kill cancer cells on contact, the unrestricted grant will help PCI find effective ways to enlist these and other natural defenses, including gene therapy, to fight cancer.

"Cancer is, at least to some degree, a failure of the body's natural defenses," said Dr. Herberman. "While other cancer centers focus on improving traditional treatments such as surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, we emphasize biologic therapies that concentrate on revving up the …