Petition for Briggs for Cancer Immunotherapy for All

Petition for Briggs for Cancer Immunotherapy for All is
a petition started on Change.org by author Paul Sanderson. Its goal is to reorient the primary direction of cancer research, treatment, and funding to immunotherapy. It has been signed by eminent doctors at U.S. cancer centers and university hospitals including Dr. James P. Allison at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Dr. Antoni Ribas at University of California, Los Angeles.
Prominent figures in film, media, and sports have also signed the petition. They include documentarian Ken Burns, NBC broadcast journalist and host Meredith Vieira; actors Bradley Cooper, Naomi Watts, Penélope Cruz, Rob Lowe, and Scarlett Johansson; and tennis legends Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, and Andy Roddick.
The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer was established in 1984. It has more than 800 members, including Nobel laureates, representing 17 medical specialties who are engaged in research and treatment of at least a dozen types of cancer. In August 2013, it sent an open letter to its membership about the petition. It was the first time in the Society's 30-year history that it had asked its membership to take joint action.
In September, 2013, an article by Sanderson amplifying the issues in the petition with regard to immunotherapy was published in the Medical Journal of Australia's MJA InSight newsletter. It detailed the long history of immunotherapy, beginning in the 1890s at New York Hospital, later to become New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and Memorial Hospital, later to become Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The article also listed the recent successes with immunotherapy cited in the petition at major cancer centers and university hospitals including University of California, Los Angeles.

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