A Taiwanese research team has developed a drug that shows promise for boosting immunotherapy in the treatment of malignant tumors, it said on Monday.
In animal trails, the drug helped boost immunotherapy efficacy by 30 to 40 percent in the treatment of tumors, said research team leader Alan Lee (李岳倫), of the National Institute of Cancer Research.
While the drug VEGF121-VEGF165 proved effective against tissue tumors in animal trails, it was not tested for use in the treatment of blood cancer, Lee told a news conference.
Safety tests of the drug would be carried out on animals before moving to clinical trials within the next five years, he said, adding that human trials would focus on patients with cancer of the breast, colon, neck and head.
Cancer cells tend to have an impenetrable shield, much like that of Marvel superhero Captain America, which wards off T cells, a type of white blood cell that protects the body against cancerous cells and other cells that have become infected by pathogens, such as bacteria or viruses, Lee said.
With VEGF121-VEGF165, the research team has developed a fusion protein drug that can breach the “Captain America” shield and enter the tumor’s microenvironment, thus enhancing immunotherapy to fight the cancer cells, he said.
VEGF is an abbreviation for vascular endothelial growth factor, a signaling protein that promotes the growth of new blood vessels.
National Health Research Institutes president Liang Kung-yee (梁賡義) said the drug’s key innovative concepts and research techniques have been patented in the EU, Japan and the US.
A paper on the team’s research was published in December last year in the Journal for Immuno Therapy of Cancer, the official journal of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS