v25i2

NEW DRUGS TO COMBAT PERSISTENT DISEASES Many cancers remain difficult to treat, such as liver, gastric, colorectal, head/neck, breast, ovarian and lung cancers and certain types of leukaemia and lymphoma. A new approach therefore is needed to make progress against these diseases. This is the mission of the Centre for Oncology and Immunology (COI), which aims to develop therapeutics that can improve patient outcomes. Working with the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre of Toronto’s University Health Network and the Technical University of Munich, the HKU-led team has developed a suite of programmes that will target the metabolic adaptations that tumours use to survive under conditions that would kill normal cells; exploit the genomic instability and aneuploidy (abnormal chromosomal number) common to many advanced cancers; combat the tactics by which cancers evade anti-tumour immune responses; and identify new tumour cell vulnerabilities. The first programme takes aim at a type of liver cancer, hepatocellular cancer (HCC), that is the fifth most common cancer in humans. Biomarkers will be identified and innovative treatments and combination therapies tested to pinpoint which HCC patients are most likely to respond to these interventions. The hope is to reduce the clinical and societal impact of liver cancer. The second programme focuses on gastric and colorectal cancers. Similar to HCC, the scholars want to identify biomarkers to guide patient treatment. They will also search for potential targets for therapy and identify genetic changes that lead to drug resistance. This work will be aided by a large biobank of cultures from gastric and colorectal cancer patients that HKUMed has developed. The third programme covers cancers of the blood system (haematopoietic cancers), including one of the deadliest cancers in the world, acute myelogenous leukaemia, as well as T-cell and B-cell lymphomas. The researchers will be testing both new and established drugs to find a way of adding back a molecule that helps to suppress tumour cell expansion. The information gathered is expected to provide new insights on these malignancies and become a reference for determining a patient’s ability to tolerate certain drug treatments. The final two programmes are not focused on specific diseases as such, but on broader applications. One is looking at how to manipulate the immune system to fight cancer by bolstering anti-tumour responses. This is expected to result in new targets for drug development and new strategies for better treatment options. The other programme will harness technologies, such as functional genomics, single-cell technologies, multi-omics profiling and bioinformatics, and translational research infrastructure and clinical trial capacity, for researchers to use in the first four programmes described here. The COI is co-led by Professors Tak Mak (co-appointed at both Toronto and HKUMed) and Leung Suet-yi of Pathology. Professor Mak’s landmark research on the cloning of the human T-cell receptor gene advanced understanding of the human immune system. “Our endeavours will prime the establishment of biotechnology and commercialisation expertise in Hong Kong. Our hope is that this will launch drugs that benefit patients globally and establish Hong Kong as a leading centre in streamlined, highly-collaborative drug development,” he said. Our endeavours will prime the establishment of biotechnology and commercialisation expertise in Hong Kong. Our hope is that this will launch drugs that benefit patients globally and establish Hong Kong as a leading centre in streamlined, highly-collaborative drug development. 11 Medical Faculty News