A research team led by Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital’s Dr. Huang-yu Yang (楊皇煜) has discovered that depriving immune cells of specific nutrients can enhance their ability to fight cancer. Following successful trials in nasopharyngeal cancer patients, the technique is expected to be expanded to the treatment of lung and breast cancers in the near future.
Huang, who is the director of the hospital’s Medical Research Department, explained that depriving immune cells of the amino acid asparagine activates a metabolic adaptation mechanism in killer T cells, making them stronger and more aggressive against cancer cells. What makes this research innovative, Huang said, is that it marks the first time in clinical treatment that a metabolic remodeling strategy has definitively enhanced the function of immune cells.
Huang believes that this strategy will open up new directions for future research in cancer immunotherapy. Their work was published in the March 2025 edition of the internationally renowned academic journal “Nature Metabolism.”