VaxCell Bio's treatment shows promise for advanced liver cancer

South Korea's VaxCell Biotherapeutics Co. on Tuesday said its treatment for advanced liver cancer under development stopped or greatly reduced the growth of cancer cells in Phase 2a clinical trials.

The tests used a combination therapy of hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC), which is widely used to treat liver cancer in its advanced stage, and Vax-NK/HCC, a VaxCell Bio-developed treatment using natural killer (NK) cells.

Among 16 liver cancer patients who used Vax-NK/HCC, six saw a complete response with no cancer cells observed and the remaining 10 had the size of their cells greatly reduced (partial response) or slightly down with suspended growth (stable disease). The disease control rate (DCR), or the percentage of patients whose cancer cells stopped growing or shrank, was 100%.

NK cell therapy is based on the principle of overpowering cancer cells by stimulating NK cells, the body's leading immune cells.

“Throughout the testing period, the disease symptoms of all liver cancer patients who received the treatment either disappeared completely or partially or remained stable,” VaxCell Bio CEO Lee Je-Jung said.

NK cell therapy is based on the principle of overpowering cancer cells by stimulating NK cells, the body's leading immune cells.

When Vax-NK/HCC was administered with HAIC, the company said, the effects were exceptionally higher than when HAIC was used alone. The response (treatment improvement) rate of HAIC monotherapy is normally around 30%, but used with Vax-NK/HCC in the clinical trials, the figure doubled to 62.5% and the DCR rose from 79% to 100%.

Based on the results of the Phase 2a trials, VaxCell Bio will begin sales of Vax-NK/HCC next year after receiving conditional approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

Write to Dae-Kyu Ahn at powerzanic@hankyung.com