Liver cancer is a type of cancer with a recurrence rate of 70% even after surgical removal of cancer cells. As a result, it is the second leading cause of cancer mortality in South Korea, following lung cancer. The global medical community has been searching for ways to prevent the recurrence of liver cancer, and 'immune anti-cancer cell therapy' has shown significant effectiveness in recurrence prevention and is gaining attention as a new alternative.
GC Cell held the 'American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (ASCO GI) 2025 Highlights Seminar' on the afternoon of the 5th at The Plaza Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. This seminar shared the latest research findings presented at ASCO GI 2025 held in the United States last month and highlighted the 9-year extended follow-up research results of GC Cell's immune anti-cancer cell therapy 'Immuncell-LC.'
Immuncell-LC, developed by GC Cell, is an immune anti-cancer cell therapy approved in 2007 as an adjunct treatment for liver cancer and is a novel treatment method that did not exist before.
Immuncell-LC is the only adjunct treatment that prevents recurrence after radical treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), including liver resection, radiofrequency ablation, and alcohol injection. HCC is the most common type of primary liver cancer in adults and the leading cause of death among patients with liver cirrhosis, as well as a major cause of cancer-related deaths globally.
Immuncell-LC utilizes cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK) to separate immune cells, such as T cells and NK cells, from the patient's blood. Cytokines are then added to activate and proliferate the immune cells, which are injected back into the patient for treatment.
On this day, Professor Lee Yun-bin from the Gastroenterology Department at Seoul National University College of Medicine presented key data from a 9-year long-term follow-up study of Immuncell-LC in 230 patients who underwent radical treatment, such as surgery for hepatocellular carcinoma. According to him, the risk of recurrence and mortality related to recurrence in the Immuncell-LC treatment group decreased by 28% compared to the control group.
The results of the 3rd phase clinical trial of Immuncell-LC, conducted on 230 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who received radical treatment, confirmed that key indicators such as recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) improved over a 5-year long-term follow-up period. The professor noted, "The adjunct therapy with Immuncell-LC means that it has improved long-term survival and recurrence-free survival rates for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma." He added, "Immuncell-LC not only has strong efficacy but also possesses competitiveness in terms of safety, as it does not cause any severe side effects of grade 3 or higher, being an autologous cell therapy."
As a result, there is growing demand in the medical field for lowering treatment barriers through insurance coverage for active prevention and adjunct treatment for liver cancer patients. When it was first released, the treatment cost for 16 sessions over 60 weeks was around 80 million won, but it increased by about 10% in 2024. This is due to rising labor costs and the generally high price of the treatment.
The professor stated, "Active tertiary prevention and adjunct treatment are extremely important for preventing recurrence of liver cancer in patients who received radical treatment," and emphasized the need for efforts to eliminate microscopic residual cancer to reduce the risks of early recurrence. He underscored that to reduce the mortality rate from liver cancer, proactive treatment for tertiary prevention must be employed using various methods.
Kim Yoon-jun, chairman of the Korean Liver Cancer Association and a gastroenterologist at Seoul National University College of Medicine, noted, "In the current situation where there are insufficient anti-cancer treatments as adjunct therapy for liver cancer, many patients are struggling to access treatment due to low market accessibility," and emphasized that expanding insurance coverage for treatments that have been internationally proven to be effective and safe is crucial for increasing patient access to treatment and addressing unmet medical needs.