Professor Joo Sang Lee’s Research Team at School of Medicine, SKKU, Proposes a New Paradigm for Immunotherapy by Converting Genetic Code of Patient that Does Not Response to Immune Checkpoint Inhibition Therapy

- Developed combined immunotherapy through big data of cancer patients’ gene, along with the National Cancer Center in USA  and Wiseman Institute of Science in Israel

[Image 1] Professor Joo Sang Lee

Immune checkpoint inhibitor is a treatment that helps our body's immune system recognize and kill cancer cells. Unlike anticancer drugs, it can be expected to nearly have full recovery and brought a new turning point in cancer treatment by rewarding the Nobel Prize in physiology in 2018. However, more than 50 percent of cancer patients still do not respond to immune checkpoint inhibitor.

In response, Joo Sang Lee’s research team, along with Eytan Rupin’s research team at the National Cancer Center in USA and Aylet Erez’s research team at the Wiseman Institute of Science in Israel, have discovered new treatments to make immune treatment effective in cancer tumors that are known to be ineffective in immunotherapy.

The research team found genetic codes that distinguish between patients who are effective in treating immunotherapy and those who are not. These genetic codes help selecting patents who respond to immunotherapy and can make treatment effective by converting gene's state of patient that does not response to immune checkpoint inhibitor.

Professor Joo Sang Lee said, “This study presents a new paradigm of immunotherapy that converts genetic code to patient series that are not effective in immune checkpoint inhibition therapy. If research results accumulate in the future, it will provide hope for many cancer patients and medical staffs.”

This study was published in the global journal, “Nature Cancer” on August 31(Mon).

※Original Article URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43018-020-0106-7