The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center said it raised $5.6 million for its research, including its immunotherapy programs, at its annual Hutch Holiday Gala held Saturday night in Seattle. The fundraising tally is important because it means the center has now pulled in a total of more than $10 million in community donations at the last two galas, which it needed in order to receive a full $10 million matching donation from the family of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The Bezos family pledged the $10 million matching donation in November 2009, specifically to spark more research in the field of immunotherapy, in which scientists seek to train the immune system to fight tumors as if they are a foreign invader like a virus.
