GC Labcell said that it has published the pre-clinical trial results for MG4101, a natural killer (NK) cell treatment of pancreatic cancer, in an international journal

The company conducted the study jointly with Professor Yoon Chae-ok’s team at Hanyang University. Pancreatic cancer’s animal model confirmed MG4101’s antitumor efficacy after showing a high tumor inhibition rate compared to Gemcitabine.

“In the case of pancreatic cancer, the accumulation of extracellular fluid limited the penetration of the treatment into the tumors,” the company said in a news release. “However, MG4101 efficiently penetrated the tumor and rapidly removed the tumor through cell death and reduction of immunosuppressive factors.”

Hwang Yu-kyung, director of Green Cross Labcell’s cell therapy research center, said, “This study reaffirmed the possibility of NK cell therapy treating various cancer types. Through continuous R&D investment, we plan to become a leading company in this field.”

MG4101 is an investigational cell therapy using NK cells that are isolated from healthy human blood. The proliferated and cultured NK cells kill cancer cells or abnormal cells. Such anticancer treatment has not been commercialized worldwide.

The results of the pre-clinical trial were published in Cancer.