Research Excellence

Liver cancer is the sixth most common type of cancer worldwide, and one of the deadliest. In Hong Kong, it accounts for a fifth of all deaths from cancer, claiming thousands of lives every year.

If the disease is caught early enough, it can be treated by curative methods such as liver transplantation. However, most patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Chemotherapy and targeted therapies can help to slow the spread of liver cancer, but survival rates are low.

Recently, immune checkpoint therapies have provided new hope for cancer patients, as they can control tumor growth. However, only 20% of patients respond well to such therapies in the long term, due to immune resistance. Tremendous efforts are currently being made to increase the response rate of this treatment.

At the forefront of these efforts is Prof. Lee Kin-wah, Terence, Professor in the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology. Prof. Lee’s research takes an innovative multi-pronged approach to improving the efficacy of existing treatment options. First, Prof. Lee and his team have systematically identified druggable targets that regulate the survival of cancer stem cells, which are responsible for tumor relapse. Second, the researchers target the protein kinases that help liver cancer cells to evade the surveillance of our immune systems, seeking to promote immune attack on cancer cells. The third target of Prof. Lee’s research is the gut microbiota, which plays a vital role in regulating the immune system. The team found that certain gut bacteria, when consumed daily, can slow tumor growth and complement current immune checkpoint therapies.

Through this novel combination of strategies, Prof. Lee is helping to overcome longstanding challenges in oncology research.

尋找肝癌新的治療策略

肝癌是全球第六大最常見癌症，也屬最致命的一種。全港每年有數千人因肝癌離世，佔癌病死亡人數五份之一。

肝癌如能及早發現，可以採取肝臟移植等方法治療。然而，大多數患者確診時已是晚期。化療和標靶治療有助減慢肝癌擴散，但存活率很低。最近，免疫檢查點療法為癌症患者帶來了新希望，因為它們可以控制腫瘤增生。然而因為免疫抵抗，只有百份之二十的患者對此類療法產生長期良好反應。醫學界目前正盡力提高療法反應率。

應用生物及化學科技學系李建華教授正是走在相關研究前沿的一人，他的研究採用了多管齊下的創新方法來提高現有方案的療效。

李教授和團隊首先有系統地找出調節癌症幹細胞存活的藥物標靶，這些幹細胞是腫瘤復發的原因。研究人員的第二項任務，是對準幫助肝癌細胞逃避免疫系統監視的蛋白質激酶，力求加強對癌細胞的免疫攻擊。李教授研究的第三個目標，是調節在免疫系統方面舉足輕重的腸道微菌群。研究團隊發現每天食用某些腸道細菌，可以減緩腫瘤增生，能配合現有的免疫檢查點療法。

李教授以創新思維結合多種治療策略，務求克服腫瘤學研究的長期挑戰。