[앵커]
Recurrent acute myelogenous leukemia is one of the most incurable diseases among leukemias.
To treat these incurable diseases, the development of treatments that use the body’s immune cells is active around the world.
This is Lee Seong-gyu.
[기자]
Leukemia, cancer of the body’s blood cells.
Half of the leukemia patients in Korea are recurrent acute myeloid leukemia, which is increasing every year.
There are treatments for this disease, such as highly toxic chemical anticancer drugs or bone marrow transplants, but there is no other treatment if even these do not work.
[신동엽 / 서울대병원 내과 교수 : 하지만 사실 완치가 안 되는 분이 훨씬 많고, 치료를 마치고서 얼마 안 돼서 1년 안에 재발했다, 이런 경우는 사실 완치가 안 되는 경우가 더 많고 따라서 효과적인 치료가 별로 없다고 봐야 합니다.]
However, a domestic bio company has developed cell therapy for this incurable disease using immune cells present in the human body.
NK cells, or natural killer cells, are used, killer cells that specialize in killing cancer cells.
Meanwhile, it was difficult to mass produce NK cells, but the company announced that it had succeeded in producing 10 times more than before with its own technology.
Previously, NK cells were isolated from blood and cultured, but the number of NK cells was so low that only 10% of blood cells existed, leading to significant losses in the isolation process.
However, this company reduced the loss by isolating other cells such as T cells without isolating NK cells.
Based on this, a total of four clinical trials were conducted led by researchers with Asan Medical Center.
[최인표 / NK세포 치료제 개발기업 CSO : 그동안 140명의 환자를 투여한 결과 재발을 약 절반 정도 감소시키고, 생존율을 2배 이상 증가시키는 좋은 임상 결과를 얻었습니다.]
NK cell therapy does not have the same toxicity as existing chemical anticancer drugs because it uses immune cells.
The research team plans to start a commercial phase 2 clinical trial in the first half of next year.
In the case of acute lymphocytic leukemia, the medical community expects that NK cell therapy will be a savior in acute myeloid leukemia, as another immune cell therapy, CAR-T, has already been commercialized and has a therapeutic effect.
This is YTN Science Lee Seong-gyu.
YTN Seongkyu Lee (sklee95@ytn.co.kr)
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