18th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Biological Therapy of Cancer. 30 October-2 November 2003, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

The 18th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Biological Therapy of Cancer (iSBTc) was held at the Hyatt Regency, Bethesda, MD, close to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus. The meeting was organised on behalf of the society by Neil Berinstein from Aventis Pasteur, Toronto, Canada, Janice P Dutcher from Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center, Bronx, NY and Francesco M Marincola from the NIH, Bethesda, MD. The 2003 meeting included 57 oral presentations and > 100 poster presentations. There were > 800 registrants to the Annual Meeting and the multiple satellite symposia. The iSBTc, formerly the Society of Biological Therapy (SBT), was founded by R Oldham in 1984. Its membership has been rapidly growing of late, with > 500 members at present. The purpose of the iSBTc is to bring together those diverse individuals actively investigating biologic agents and biological response modifiers in the treatment of cancer, including clinicians and basic scientists from industry, government and academia. The President of the Society is Dr Michael B Atkins from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA and the Vice President is Ulrich Keilholz from UKBF, Free University Berlin, Germany.