Sungkyunkwan University announced on the 27th that Professor Park Seong-soo's research team from the Department of Mechanical Engineering has developed a technology that can precisely measure the effectiveness of CAR-T cell therapy, a next-generation immuno-oncology drug, in real time, in collaboration with Professor Joo Cheol-min's research team from Yonsei University.
CAR-T therapy is a treatment method that modifies a patient's immune cells to directly attack cancer cells. It has shown outstanding effects particularly in blood cancers, but it has been challenging to develop for solid tumors, as it is difficult for immune cells to access the cancer cells, and there has been a lack of precise methods to verify treatment efficacy.
The research team developed a new image analysis algorithm that can simultaneously and accurately measure how much light is absorbed and scattered inside cancer cells, applying the 'optical coherence tomography (OCT)' used in ophthalmic disease diagnosis.
Based on this, the research team conducted a comparison of existing chemotherapy drugs and CAR-T therapy in a three-dimensional tumor model made from breast cancer cells. The results showed that CAR-T cells killed cancer cells more than twice as fast in just 12 hours, and a unique phenomenon was observed where cancer cells sequentially disappeared in waves from the outside in.
The key aspect of this research is the development of an image analysis technology that allows for non-invasive, real-time verification of how well CAR-T cells kill cancer cells without harming the body. Previously, treatment effects could only be determined by inserting fluorescent substances or destroying tissues, but this new technology enables the observation of the process of cancer cell death without fluorescence and while keeping the cells alive.
Dr. Han Seok-kyu from Sungkyunkwan University and Harvard Medical School, who participated in the research, noted, "This research serves as a foundational technology that can quickly and accurately analyze how CAR-T therapeutics attack cancer cells and how effective they are," adding that "it could become an important benchmark for future drug development."
The results of this research were published in the international journal 'Theranostics' on the 22nd.
References
Theranostics(2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.7150/thno.118722