New hope for anti-cancer adjuvant iNKT cell immunotherapy
The WHO released a global cancer report. In 2020, there were more than 19.3 million new cases of cancer and nearly 10 million deaths worldwide. On average, 1 in 5 people will be affected by cancer. Due to aging, lifestyle changes, an increase in the obese population, and the promotion of cancer screening, the number of cancer cases in Taiwan continues to increase.
Traditional cancer treatment methods include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. However, traditional treatments have many side effects and are often unable to accurately kill only tumor cells, resulting in decreased immunity and high recurrence rates. Clinical data statistics show that more than 90% of cancer patients relapse within five years after surgery, and 80% of these patients have recurrence within 3 years after surgery.
In order to improve the traditional cancer treatment situation, cancer immunotherapy has been widely used in clinical practice in the past 10 years. The main features are as follows:
Enhance immunity and reduce the risk of cancer metastasis: reinfuse healthy cells to enhance immunity and control cancer lesions.
Autologous cell reinfusion: less side effects and higher safety
Infusing healthy cells back into the body to enhance the patient’s own immunity is a treatment method that enables the immune system to recognize cancer cells and control cancer lesions. It not only directly treats early-stage cancer patients, but also attacks residual cancer cells after surgery, reducing the risk of cancer metastasis in advance, and has the characteristics of minimal side effects.
With the advancement of medical technology, a kind of killer cell with stronger attack ability has also been discovered in the human body, invariant natural killer T cell (invariant natural killer T; iNKT), which combines the advantages of T cells and NK cells and has immune regulation. It has anti-cancer immunity and tumor-suppressing effects. Colin Kaixin, Emeritus Professor of Hematology Oncology at National Taiwan University, said: “Although iNKT cells are rare in number, they are powerful and play an indispensable role in the immune system.”
iNKT cells are more powerful than many other immune cells. The only drawback is that there are very few iNKT cells in the human body. In most cases, less than 0.1% of blood cells are iNKT cells. Currently, the source of iNKT cells can only be obtained by isolating iNKT cells from peripheral blood stem cells, so their application in cancer immunotherapy is still challenging.
Ivy Biotechnology specializes in iNKT immune cell expansion technology. A single collection can be used for multiple treatments or the same treatment multiple times, which will greatly reduce the time and physical and mental burden required by patients, and can enhance the efficacy of iNKT cells. Ivy Biotechnology is currently conducting multiple clinical trials and extending the application of iNKT cells to multiple diseases. It is believed that iNKT immune cell therapy can truly achieve medical cure for early-stage cancer patients, and allow patients with mid- to late-stage cancer to have a higher quality of life and better therapeutic effects during the treatment process.
Ask the Experts
Dr. Lin Kaixin, an authoritative physician in the Pediatric Department of National Taiwan University Hospital and the host of the Ivy Biotechnology R&D Center
Learning experience
Honorary Professor, National Taiwan University School of Medicine
Attending Physician of the Department of Pediatrics/Director of the Department of Hematology and Oncology of the Department of Pediatrics, National Taiwan University Hospital
Honorary Chairman of Taiwan Thalassemia Association
Served as Vice President of E-Da Hospital
Served as Chairman of the Taiwan Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation
Graduated from Department of Medicine, National Taiwan University
Medical expertise
Stem cell transplantation, hematology-oncology, cell therapy, stem cell storage, congenital genetic diseases
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