PROMISING results have been achieved from a new therapy developed by a Highland scientist for the treatment of patients with liver cancer.
Jun Wei, a professor of genetics at the Inverness-based University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI), has devised a kit to screen blood bank stock for samples which have high levels of a cancer-fighting antibody.
Plasma containing the required high levels of the antibody can then be infused into patients to kill liver cancer cells.
Years of clinical trials in China, which has more than half of the world’s population of liver cancer patients, have shown that those who received the new therapy survived for an average of one year longer than those who received conventional treatment.
This figure represents a significant increase in the life expectancy of these patients, whose average survival period has increased from 20 months to 32 months.
Now, the university has signed an agreement licensing the technology to Qingdao Hailanshen Biotechnology, the Chinese company which has been supporting the clinical trials over the last three years.
Qingdao Hailanshen will now conduct a series of further trials which will enable the treatment to be approved for use across China.
Wei is now looking for opportunities to collaborate with other organisations to help introduce the technology to the rest of the world.
The professor is also hoping to extend the reach of the therapy by investigating whether kits can be developed to help treat other types of cancer.
His university was awarded £9 million from the UK Government, as part of the Inverness and Highlands city-region deal, to establish commercialisation, academic and clinical capacity to deliver projects in health, social care and life sciences.
“This is a promising immunotherapy for cancer treatment with anticancer antibodies from our own blood,” said Wei.
“Based on clinical trials carried out in China, this therapy could not only extend the survival of cancer patients, but also improve the quality of their life due to the little side effects observed.”
Professor Ian Megson, head of Health Research and Innovation at UHI’s division of health research, said: “Development of this technology represents an enormous step forward for health research at the university.
“We look forward to the conclusion of the clinical trial in China and to uptake of the technology globally.
“The potential to develop similar therapies in other hard-to-treat cancers such as pancreatic and breast cancer is exciting.”
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