Professor Donghoon Lee’s Team at Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital Launches Clinical Trial of Immunocyte Therapy for Head and Neck Cancer

Donghoon Lee, Professor of Otolaryngology, Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital.

Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital announced on September 3 that Professor Donghoon Lee’s otolaryngology team is launching an advanced immunocyte therapy clinical trial for patients with progressive head and neck cancer. With the Ministry of Health and Welfare recently approving the research plan, there is growing interest in whether this could become a new alternative for patients who have failed standard treatments.

Head and neck cancer is a representative intractable cancer, with more than 660,000 new cases and over 320,000 deaths worldwide each year.

Pharyngeal cancer has a poor prognosis due to recurrence and metastasis, even after surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. The five-year survival rate remains at 50%, and drops to below 30% if the disease progresses or metastasizes. Even the response rate to immuno-oncology drugs is only around 20%, highlighting the urgent need for new approaches for patients who do not respond to treatment.

The core of this clinical study is the cell therapy product ‘SB-ImmuneAllCure-HN,’ which involves processing a patient’s immune cells and re-administering them. CD14-positive cells are isolated from the patient’s blood and treated with a specific glycolipid, which activates NKT cells in the body. These activated NKT cells simultaneously stimulate various immune cells, such as T cells and NK cells, to attack tumors, and are expected to form long-term immune memory, helping to suppress recurrence and metastasis.

This therapy has already reached the commercialization stage in Japan following clinical studies, and is known to be relatively stable in terms of safety.

If Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital succeeds in this clinical trial, it will open the possibility of commercializing NKT cell-based immunocyte therapy for the first time in Korea. If its safety and efficacy are proven in the future, the scope of treatment is expected to expand to patients with various intractable solid tumors, including lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and melanoma.

Professor Donghoon Lee said, "Head and neck cancer outcomes have stagnated, making it difficult for both patients and medical staff. I hope this clinical study will present new possibilities for immunocyte therapy and serve as an opportunity to improve patient survival rates and quality of life."

Meanwhile, Shangri-La Bio Co., Ltd., which supplies ‘SB-ImmuneAllCure-HN’ cells to Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital, is an advanced biopharmaceutical manufacturer that has obtained approvals from both the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in Korea and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Japan, and possesses the competitiveness to produce and supply therapeutic cells both domestically and internationally.