고려대학교 의과대학 및 의과학연구지원센터 구성원이 아닌 경우에는 본인인증을 통하여 글을 작성할 수 있습니다.
- 본인인증 후 글을 작성할 수 있습니다.
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내 명의의 휴대전화로 비밀번호를 재설정 할 수 있습니다.
Professors of neurosurgery Shin-hyuk Kang and Gyou-ha Jeong
propose a new strategy of repurposing anti-psychotic drugs
for the treatment of refractory brain tumors
A research team led by professors of neurosurgery Shin-hyuk Kang (Anam Hospital) and Gyou-ha Jeong (Guro Hospital) confirmed the tumoricidal effects of anti-psychotic drugs in treating malignant brain tumors, suggesting a novel therapeutic approach.
A malignant brain tumor is an intractable disease with the survival of 12~14 months even on the most recent treatment. Such a low survival compared to that of other cancers is due to the nature of the disease which tends to develop a strong resistance to drugs in many patients.
Drug repurposing involves the investigation of existing drugs for new therapeutic purposes. Given the substantial costs and slow pace of new drug discovery and development, repurposing of existing drugs is becoming an attractive proposition because it involves the use of de-risked compounds, with lower overall development costs and shorter development timelines. This led the research team to launch a study to search any possible existing treatments that can help overcome the limitations of the presenting anti-cancer drugs for brain tumors, which exhibited low therapeutic effects in clinical settings.
One of the biggest challenges of applying treatments to brain tumor is the blood-brain-barrier (BBB), a structural feature of the brain. Of the medications available today, the research team demonstrated the anti-psychotic drug Penfluridol had a very good efficacy for treating cancers within therapeutic range, which is safe to be used in patients. In addition, the combination therapy of Penfluridol added to the Temozolomide, the current first-line treatment for brain tumor showed superiority in tumor suppression and survival compared to Temozolomide monotherapy.
The efficacy of the treatment has been verified in the model with 3D structure, which is similar to that of the living organism and its biological environment. In addition, an orthotopic brain tumor model was used to confirm what was found in the preceding study. It can now move on to be studied in a clinical trial with a good level of confidence.
The finding of the study is published in the renowned international journal of Cancers (IF= 6.162) in its September 5, 2019 issue under the title of “Repurposing Penfluridol in Combination with Temozolomide for Treatment of Glioblastoma.” It is exactly a year later that the study won an award at the conference of the Korean Society for Neuro-Oncology on Sept. 5, 2020. The National Research Foundation of Korea funded the study, which was carried out with the active support and collaboration from the department of neurosurgery of the Korea University College of Medicine, professor Seok Chung of the School of Mechanical Engineering at Korea University and doctor Myung-Jin Park of the Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences.
Radiation surgery Proven to be Highly Effective in Recurrent Head and Neck Cancers
Significant response of recurrent cancer following SBRT as high as 62%, and complete response 31% in patients with recurrent head and neck cancers
A joint study team of the Korea University Ansan Hospital (professor Chai-hong Rim, Department of Radiation Oncology) and Inha University School of Medicine (professor Jeongshim Lee, Department of Radiation Oncology) revealed a result of the research that verified the efficacy of the radiation surgery (stereotactic body radiotherapy, SBRT) for recurrent head and neck cancers.
As its name indicates, the cancers of the head and neck refer to the tumors that usually begin in the head or the neck including the facial area, the mouth, the nose, the tongue and the throat. They represent the group of cancers that are most difficult to treat. Half ot thses patients recur and it is very difficult to cure recurred cancers with surgical resection or any other means.
The finding of the study is published in the issue 107 of the Oral Oncology (5-year IF 4.19, JCR ranking 4.9%), an official journal for the International Association of Oral Cancer and the European Association of Oral Medicine, which is recognized as the world's top medical journal in the field of oral cancer.
The research team conducted a meta-analysis and systematic review of the efficacy of SBRT-based reirradiation in 575 patients with recurrent or secondary head and neck cancers. The pooled rates of clinical response including the reduction and loss of recurrent cancer following SBRT was as high as 62% and complete response was found in almost half of these patients, which is 31%. Such figures are very encouraging since the subjects are patients with recurrent cancers for whom available local modalities are limited.
The SBRT, adopted in the study, administered very high doses of radiation using a linear accelerator to precisely target the tumor. Its efficiency and shorter treatment time required earned the therapy a nickname of 'radiation surgery.'
Professor Chai-hong Rim said, “For those patients with recurrent head and neck cancers, surgical treatment has demonstrated the best outcome. However, only a very small number of patients has the completely resectable tumors. So the radiation therapy has evolved as a good alternative treatment option to surgery.” He also added, “This study is meaningful in that it shows SBRT is a feasible therapy achieving a good response in patients with recurrent head and neck cancers, who are not suitable for salvage surgery."
KUCM Student's Articles on COVID-19 Published in International Journal
Personal Experience with COVID-19 Translates to Research
Two research articles on COVID-19 by Mr. Jewel Park, a 4th year medical student at Korean University College of Medicine, were published in international journals.
He launched on the first study out of simple curiosity. To a student who grew up in Sri Lanka with no underground transportation system, the subway network in Korea looked like a symbol of remarkable economic achievement. He was also fascinated to the stories that each subway station has. Recently, COVID-19 allowed him free time as school was put on hold. He decided to spend the time conducting a research on social distancing practice based on subway statistics.
The study was aimed at understanding how well social distancing was practiced during the period from January to March 2020 by tracking the data on the number of passengers using subway in Seoul. In order to understand the behavior patterns of the high-risk groups such as the elderly and office workers, this indirect measure of social distancing classified stations as “young” and “old” depending on the age of those people who mainly used the stations and “work” and “leisure” based on the purpose of using the stations.
Compared to the period prior to COVID-19, the mean daily number of passengers in all stations decreased by 40.6% after a mass infection case was first reported in Daegu on February 20. However, it bounced back up a little bit after the call center infection outbreak on March 10 and the aggressive social distancing campaign put in place on March 22 by 1.4% and 2.3% respectively. The percentage decrease in individual stations during this period was not significantly different between “young” and “old” stations but was significantly smaller in “work” stations than in “leisure” stations.
This study confirmed that since mid-March there has been a decreasing level of adherence to social distancing especially among those people who commute between home and workplace. Such findings of the study were published in the international online journal Cureus Journal of Medical Science under the title "Changes in Subway Ridership in Response to COVID-19 in Seoul, South Korea: Implications for Social Distancing."
Mr. Park was supposed to join a clinical clerkship program in the USA in May, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than becoming dejected, he decided to turn this crisis into an opportunity to do more research. The research topic that came across his mind was the dire situation of medical studetns across the world who were looking to become doctors in the USA.
Every year, around 7,000 medical school graduates who don't have US citizenship apply for residency programs in the USA. COVID-19 is likely to pose one more challenge to them who have to go through a tough application process. This may ultimately hinder the supply of medical professionalists to the US hospitals. Mr. Park, along with Hye Chang Rhim, a graduate of KU College of Medicine, attempted to assess the challenge posed by COVID-19 on the process of applying to US residency programs, and came up with suggestions for improvement. Findings of this research were published in the Korean Journal of Medical Education under the title of "Consequences of COVID-19 on international medical graduates and students applying to residencies in the United States."
Mr. Park said, “I did not want to lose a second in launching the study as the situation around COVID-19 were changing so quickly. Without having had the experience of doing research under the supervision of teachers over the past three years, I would not have been able to complete the study. Watching the Youtube broadcasting run by professor Woo-Joo Kim of infectious disease at Korean University Guro Hospital was of great help as it offered the most up-to-date information on COVID-19. And I'd like to express my special thanks to all the professors who lent me helping hands all the time and the school for encouraging students to be actively engaged in research projects.”
A Research Team Led by Dr. Seok-Jun Yoon, Professor of Preventive Medicine Releases Finding of Study on Disease Burden and Government Budget
Indirect cost resulting from mental and behavior disorders much greater
Stresses the need to secure fund based on the characteristics of the beneficiaries
A research team led by Dr. Seok-Jun Yoon, professor of preventive medicine at Korea University (KU) College of Medicine, together with Dun-Sol Go, professor of preventive medicine at KU College of Medicine; professor Jong-Woo Park, department of psychiatry at Kyung Hee University School of Medicine; Sungwon Roh, department of psychiatry at Hanyang University; and Young-Eun Kim, big data team leader at the National Health Insurance Service has the finding of its research published in a renowned international journal. They made a comparison of disease burden and the budget of the Korean government (Ministry of Health and Welfare).
The Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) are the sum of the years of life lost due to premature mortality (Years of Life Lost, YLL) and the years lived with a disability (YLD). One DALY represents the loss of the equivalent of one year of full health.
The research team measured the burden of mental and behavioral disorders (MBDs) using the DALYs for Koreans in 2015 to find that it was 1,831 DALY per 100,000 people. In Korea, the disease burden of MBDs accounted for 6.4% of the total disease burden. More than 98% DALY of the mental and behavioral disorders was due to YLD, indicating that the burden of living with mental and behavioral disorders was greater than the burden from premature death.
Socio-economic cost from mental and behavioral disorders stood at around USD 6 billion won in 2015. Of this, indirect cost resulting from lost productivity was greater (63.5%) than the burden of actual medical expenses.
The mental health budget in South Korea was USD 253.4 million in 2019. In details, USD 90.3million from the general account, USD 65.8 million from the National Health Promotion Fund including suicide prevention and regional mental health programs, and USD 97.3 million from the special account for the national mental hospitals. Major programs for the general account include support for the operation of nursing homes for those with mental health problems. Social welfare items for the general account include budget allocated to the Addiction Management Support Centers (USD 3 million) starting from 2018 and budget for community care (USD 166,000) from 2019.
The research team also confirmed that the budget for mental health allocated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare steadily increased from around USD 73 million in 2007 to USD 253.4 million in 2019. However, its proportion out of the entire budget for healthcare remained about the same as the previous year at 2.4%.
They also underlined the need to set priority and determine distribution of resources based on the characteristics of those who are in need. People living with the burden of mental and behavioral disorders need be supported even after they return to normal life as well as during the treatment. There should be an increase in budget supporting their efforts to return to normal life following treatment.
The study is published in the May 22 issue of the distinguished international medical journal, Journal of Mental Health (IF=2.604) under the title of "A comparison of disease burden and the government budget for mental health in Korea."
Principal researcher Seok-Jun Yoon said, “For the development of policies for mental health, there should be a well-organized plan to secure funding to support the mental health patients in Korea so that we can provide evidence-based treatment. He also added, “There should be continued efforts made to bring our attention as community members to the significance of mental health issues.”
Dr. Seok-Jun Yoon joined the Korea University College of Medicine (KUCM) in 2002 as a professor of preventive medicine. Since then, he has taught at KUCM and KU Graduate School of Public Health. He served as the head of the HIRA research institute of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) in 2013, and its executive director in charge of planning in 2014. Currently he is the dean of KU Graduate School of Public Health, a member of the Health Insurance Policy Review Committee of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the leader of the National Mental Health and Welfare Commission.