Prof. Steven Rosenberg, chief of surgery at the U.S. National Cancer Institute – perhaps the world's most celebrated cancer researcher – visited the Sheba Medical Center yesterday (June 12). Dr. Jacob Schachter, head of Sheba's Elah Center for Melanoma Treatment and Research, is partnered with Dr. Rosenberg in offering a revolutionary "immunotherapy" treatment for melanoma. Rosenberg met a 58-year-old patient whose cancer is in complete remission thanks to this pioneering treatment.

By the "Rosenberg immunotherapy" protocol, Sheba doctors seek to re-engineer the patient's immune system so that it will act to destroy the cancers. Doctors remove white blood cells from the tumor, seeking cells that show strong and aggressive immune properties. These cells are re-grown and amplified in the lab, then re-introduced to the patient's body – after the patient's sick immune system is shut down by intensive chemotherapy. In the newest form of experimental treatment a gene called NCR, which has shown strong anti-cancer properties, is attached to the cells before their reinsertion to the patients' body.

"The conventional treatments for cancer – surgery, chemotherapy and radiation – fail in about fifty percent of patients," said Prof. Rosenberg yesterday. "Our approach, which employs individualized immunotherapy and genetic manipulations in cell therapy -- is the wave of the future," he said. Sheba is one of the few medical centers in the world, and the only center in Israel, capable of treating patients by Rosenberg's specialized protocol.

"My collaboration with Dr. Schachter here at Sheba is tremendously important and beneficial, and I am very impressed by the magnificent facility that Sheba has built for the Elah Center and for cancer treatment and research in general," Rosenberg said.

Nehemiah and Haya Lemelbaum, the philanthropists who established the Elah Center, participated in the Rosenberg visit, as well. Mr. Lemelbaum, a businessman who has devoted his life to advancing cancer research and treatment, actively follows the scientific progress of the Sheba Cancer Research Center. "In science as well as business, we try to make smart investments," Mr. Lemelbaum said, "and we will continue to invest in this facility and in Sheba's world-class research team."

In a fascinating medical-scientific brainstorming session, Prof. Rosenberg met jointly with a range of Sheba oncologists and scientists for a discussion of futuristic cancer research and treatment approaches. Among the participants in this 90 minute detailed scientific discussion were Dr. Itzhak Zaidise (acting director of Sheba), Dr. Jacob Schachter (deputy chief of oncology services and Rosenberg's scientific partner at Sheba), Prof. Gidi Rechavi (chairman and director of the Sheba Cancer Research Center), Prof. Arnon Nagler (chief of hematology and bone marrow transplantation), Dr. Moshe Papa (chief of surgical oncology), Dr. Avi Treves (executive director of the Sheba Cancer Research Center), and other scientists.