South Korean medical advancements in immunotherapy and localized radioactive treatments

Recent developments in South Korean medical biotechnology highlight new approaches to cancer and keloid treatment. In oncology, the immunotherapy drug Keytruda (pembrolizumab) has received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for treating platinum-resistant epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, and primary peritoneal cancers in patients with PD-L1 expression (CPS ≥ 1).

Medical experts from Seoul National University Hospital noted that while survival curves may show narrow margins, the treatment is clinically significant for patients with poor prognoses, reducing the risk of disease progression or death by 28%. Experts emphasized that widespread clinical impact will depend on biomarker testing accessibility and health insurance coverage.

In a separate breakthrough, the South Korean biotech firm SNvia has demonstrated success in animal testing using a localized radioactive isotope delivery method. Unlike traditional intravenous therapies that rely on ligands to find cancer cells, this method involves injecting biodegradable hyaluronic acid microgels containing radioactive isotopes directly into the lesion. In studies involving keloid tissue, the treatment reduced keloid size by approximately 70% within two weeks without damaging surrounding healthy tissue. SNvia is now working to expand this technology toward treating liver cancer via arterial radioembolization.