Two Minutes with a Scientific Director: Dr. Fei-Fei Liu

CIHR: Dr. Liu, cancer remains a significant health challenge here in Canada and around the world. Have there been any advances that might offer hope in the fight against cancer?

Dr. Liu: Yes! The most impactful research in oncology in recent years is the emergence of immunotherapy. This is our latest tool in the fight against cancer and we are seeing some very positive results with this treatment.

Around the mid-1990s, immunologists discovered that cancer cells have the ability to "hit the brakes" on our immune cells, meaning that our immune system is no longer able to recognize or kill cancer cells (known as immune checkpoints).

However, following decades of laboratory studies, we learned that we can design inhibitors of these immune checkpoints, known as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), which are able to eliminate tumours.

The first ICI treatments were approved in 2011 for patients with metastatic melanoma – a form of skin cancer. For these patients, it was like a miracle drug. Patients who were previously dying of the disease suddenly began to see their skin lesions disappear, and the patients were able to survive – often for many years.

Since then, there has been an explosion of ICIs, in many varieties. They have transformed the landscape of cancer therapy such that immunotherapies are now considered to be the fourth major type of cancer treatment, in addition to the traditional treatments of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.

CIHR: That is very exciting. So as a result of these research developments, are we seeing improvements in cancer patient health and quality of life?

Dr. Liu: Yes, the ICIs and another similar therapy called CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor – T cell) have significantly improved clinical outcomes, and prolonged survival for a broad range of cancer patients.

For example, the use of ICI in women with breast cancer has improved the three-year, event-free survival from 75% to 85%. In patients with lung cancer, the addition of an ICI with chemo-radiotherapy has increased the five-year survival rate from around 30% to 40%.

These figures may not jump off the page in terms of the relative numbers, but considering that lung cancer is the most common cancer for both men and women, the absolute number of patients benefiting from these new therapies is quite significant.

For CAR-T therapy, the number of leukemia patients who have experienced complete eradication of their disease has doubled. Further, 75% of those patients have remained in remission years after completing their treatment.

All of these immunotherapy approaches have definitely moved the needle in terms of patients' health and survival. It's a really exciting time to be doing cancer research right now, and we look forward to a future of even more impactful discoveries.

Date modified:

2025-01-30