Super Genius DNA
Chapter 129: The American Cancer Conference (5)

Doctor Moore had worked for the American Association for Cancer Research for thirty-seven years. He was going to retire last year, but he pushed back his plans to oversee the preparations for this year’s conference himself. It was because he was deeply inspired by Young-Joon.

Moore was also once a promising rookie who had successfully made his debut in Science. He went on to become a professor at Brown University and a well-known scientist whose name appeared in many of America’s top newspapers. He was past his prime now, but he was once nominated for the Nobel Prize. He had studied cancer for over thirty years and seen countless scientists, breakthroughs, and new drugs. However, the progress being observed since Young-Joon appeared like a comet was different.

“Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Cancer Conference,” Moore said as he presented Young-Joon.

It was a standard courtesy for the moderator to give a brief overview of the seminar speaker’s career before they began their lecture.

“Doctor Ryu was personally invited by me. He has graciously agreed to give the first lecture on the first day of the conference to kickstart this event. As the person who was in charge of organizing this conference, I would like to express my deepest gratitude.”

Moore then pulled up a small slide on the screen.

“I’m sure many of you already know about Doctor Ryu Young-Joon, but I would like to give you a brief introduction. I have brought with me three important statistics that can visibly demonstrate Doctor Ryu’s achievements.”

Several graphs appeared on the screen.

“These are data that was gathered by the American Association For Cancer Research. These are the statistics on the number of patients newly diagnosed with cancer each month.”

—Breast cancer: 240 000

—Lung cancer: 200 000

—Liver cancer: 85 000

—Pancreatic cancer: 15 000

“These data were gathered at the end of last year.”

Moore went on to the next slide.

“Now, let’s look at last month’s results.”

—Breast cancer: 310 000

—Lung cancer: 240 000

—Liver cancer: 125 000

—Pancreatic cancer: 21 000

“There is no way that the number of cancer patients increased so suddenly in just six months because there was a major change in human genes or lifestyle. So, how did this happen?” Moore asked.

“Diagnostic kits…” someone murmured.

“That’s right. With the commercialization of the diagnostic kit that Doctor Ryu developed about five months ago, cancer patients are coming to the hospital and getting early diagnoses. People who would have otherwise not known they had cancer were diagnosed,” said Moore. “Let’s look at the next one.”

—Breast cancer: 50 000

—Lung cancer: 170 000

—Liver cancer: 80 000

—Pancreatic cancer: 40 000

“This is how many patients die of cancer every month. These values were collected last year. How has this changed?”

Moore went on to the next slide.

—Breast cancer: 48 000

—Lung cancer: 170 000

—Liver cancer: 2000 (Monthly average after the launch of Cellicure, the liver cancer cure)

—Pancreatic cancer: 3000 (Monthly average after the launch of Birnagen, the pancreatic cancer cure)

The graph of monthly changes shown below this statistic was even more dramatic. The values for liver and pancreatic cancer dropped to less than one-tenth of the original value from June and July.

Clap clap clap!

As someone in the audience began clapping, others followed.

“The last statistic is fascinating as well.”

—Alimap: $7800

—Clutinib: $5200

—Keraptin: $3800

—Osimerzumap: $2900

—Bevatinib: $7500

“This was the average monthly cost of the conventional anticancer drugs. As we all know, this is not something the average person can afford to pay out of pocket without insurance.”

Moore went to the next slide.

“Now, it has changed to this.”

—Alimap: $9.70

—Clutinib: $7.50

—Keraptin: $3800

—Osimerzumap: $8.50

—Bevatinib: $7500

“Wow…”

Everyone had heard the news, but seeing it this way came as a shock, even to the scientist who already knew.

“A-Bio’s new plant-based pharmaceutical production method has yet to be applied to Keratinib and Bevatinib due to patent issues, so the price has remained the same,” said Moore. “However, the other three have gone down to almost less than 0.1 percent of the original cost. It is now the price of a burger combo.”

Moore turned off the slideshow and walked over to stand beside Young-Joon.

“I believe these three statistics clearly show the things you are doing, Doctor Ryu. You’re finding patients who were undetectable before, you’re saving patients who were previously untreatable by providing new technologies, and you’re reducing the economic burden on society by bringing down the cost of drugs.”

Moore finished up his introduction of Young-Joon.

“I thank Doctor Ryu again for participating in today’s lecture when you are doing such important work. Please give him a round of applause.”

Clap clap clap!

Once again, applause filled the seminar room. Moore handed the microphone to Young-Joon.

“Thank you, Doctor Moore. I don’t think anyone in my company has ever shown me such a well-organized statistic before. Can the A-Bio marketing team buy this data and use it?” Young-Joon asked playfully.

There was mild laughter in the audience.

Young-Joon presented the slide on dendritic cell-bypass chimeric immunotherapy.

“What I am going to present today is my new paper, which is a technology that combines Professor Kakeguni’s technology, the chimeric immunotherapy developed by Conson & Colson, and Cas9, which are gene scissors. It is called gene surgery.”

Young-Joon began his lecture. All the scientists listened with interest, but their attention was all focused elsewhere.

‘Will there be a discussion about the clinical patient at the end of this?’

The moment Forsberg was mentioned, the conversation could turn into a debate about immune checkpoint inhibitors. That was what everyone was worried and excited about at the same time.

“... Ultimately working this way. Furthermore, a trial was done on an end-stage lung cancer patient in Sweden with hyperprogression.”

“Was that trial approved?”

Someone threw a keen question at Young-Joon. It was Jamie Anderson.

“Yes. The trial was approved by the Swedish Medical Product Agency.”

“And there was no animal data on this?”

“No. There was no animal testing done at the time.”

“So, you administered a new drug that hadn’t been tested on animals directly to humans? Isn’t that a bit risky?”

“...”

Young-Joon stared at Jamie Anderson. Jamie Anderson was trying to put a dent in this technology; he was trying to get revenge on him for damaging the image of the immune checkpoint inhibitor.

“It was a reasonable decision. Dendritic cell bypass, chimeric immunotherapy, and gene correction with Cas9: all three are well-established techniques. Trying them in the body all at once was the novel work being done.”

“That’s what I am saying. I mean, it just doesn’t make sense to me that the Swedish Medical Product Agency would approve of a treatment that hasn’t been pre-clinically tested for drug excretion or toxicity. Was there some kind of external pressure?” Jamie Anderson attacked Young-Joon more blatantly.

“The patient’s condition was so severe that he only had about a week to live.”

“Just because they are a hopeless patient, it doesn’t mean that you can test any new drugs on them like you’re doing animal testing.”

“I agree. However, the patient insisted on this treatment, and the Swedish Medical Agency approved of the treatment because they recognized its potential.”

“Still, there is something called protocol in modern pharmaceutical practice…”

“That is enough, Anderson!”

Someone shouted from across the lecture room. Young-Joon wondered what scientist was brave enough to speak up, but to his surprise, it was a familiar face. Nicholas, the CTO of A-Gen, was sitting in his seat with his legs crossed and a scowl on his face.

“Protocols are important, but we don’t have to get completely hung up on them. That was a brave and wise decision made by the Swedish Medical Agency. And as for the hyperprogression that occurred in the clinical patient’s body, wasn’t that due to the immune checkpoint inhibitor that came out of your lab?”

“What!”

Jamie Anderson scrambled to his feet with a frown.

“Sit down,” said Yoon Dae-Sung, the CEO of A-Gen, who was sitting beside Nicholas. “Doctor Anderson, is there a need to make such a disturbance at a conference this big?”

“...”

Jamie Anderson glared at Yoon Dae-Sung angrily, then sat back down. Young-Joon was a little baffled.

‘Wait, when did those grandpas come?’

Of course, they could come as it was a big conference, but it was normal to send scientists rather than coming themselves. It was understandable for David and Nicholas as David liked these kinds of things and Nicholas was a scientist.

‘But I didn’t know Yoon Dae-Sung would come.’

Young-Joon didn’t recognize them as there were so many people in the seminar room and he had to get on stage right away.

‘I should greet them after I’m done.’

Young-Joon picked up the microphone again.

“I will now explain the prognosis of the clinical patient.”

He continued with his lecture.

* * *

About twenty minutes later, Young-Joon finished his presentation and received another round of applause.

“Are there any questions?” Young-Joon asked.

Dozens of hands immediately shot up from the audience.

“You manipulated a total of fourteen genes in immune cells in your paper. How many genes do you think can be manipulated at most?”

“I believe we can manipulate up to forty genes.”

“Originally, there were reports that chimeric immunotherapy worked well on blood cancers but relatively poorly on solid tumors. But you cured a solid tumor in lung cancer with the technology you developed, right?”

“Yes. And before that, it was used to cure liver cancer that had metastasized to the bone in a pediatric patient.”

“Then, do you believe that it will be effective on other types of cancers as well?”

“I predict so,” Young-Joon replied.

More questions followed until finally, Young-Joon heard what he had been waiting for.

“Doctor Ryu!” a young, enthusiastic scientist asked. “I know it’s a bit off-topic from your talk today, but you reported that immune checkpoint inhibitors have the potential to induce hyperprogression in a paper that came out around the same time, right?”

“Yes.”

“I was wondering if you could talk about that, at least briefly?”

The look in everyone’s eyes changed. Jamie Anderson clenched his jaw.

“I know that everyone is curious about that. We have data from an animal experiment and one clinical case, but science becomes clear through countless repetitions,” Young-Joon replied. “However, I also believe that it is unreasonable to keep giving patients that risky drug and wait for hyperprogression.”

“Doctor Ryu!” Jamie Anderson shouted. “That drug has no possibility of hyperprogression. Do not speak about your own opinions that haven’t been peer-reviewed so recklessly.”

Nicholas interrupted again.

“It happened to an actual patient!”

Jamie Anderson turned and glared at Nicolas.

“Do you have any evidence that it was due to EGFR like Doctor Ryu claims?”

“There is a high probability of NSCLC having a mutation in EGFR!”

“It’s just a high probability, not a proven fact!”

“But isn’t that probability enough to reconsider administering it to patients in the future?”

“That drug was studied at the Cold Spring Laboratory for twenty years. It passed all clinical trial phases. I believe that there is nothing wrong with it. As the director of the Cold Spring Lab, I am sure of it.”

“... Then, A-Gen will have to be more careful about using drugs developed at the Cold Spring Lab from now on,” Nicholas said.

“Doctor Nicholas, you are the CTO of A-Gen, aren’t you? How can you say that so lightly?”

“Of course, I can. Doctor Ryu is an executive of A-Gen.”

“...”

Jamie Anderson paused.

“It is just like what Doctor Nicholas said,” Yoon Dae-Sung interjected, taking a deep breath. “Doctor Anderson, Because Doctor Ryu is an A-Gen executive, the paper that Doctor Ryu published is also A-Gen’s paper. It is a legitimate criticism and a reasonable issue that could be raised in the scientific community. What would the pharmaceutical companies think if the developers of a new drug did not provide any feedback?”

“...”

There was a heavy silence in the room. The air was so sharp and tense that someone could cut their finger on it.

“Let’s do this,” Young-Joon spoke up again. “I understand your position that mice experiments and one piece of clinical data are insufficient. It is a prominent new drug, so we should approach it carefully.”

Young-Joon went on.

“On the last day of this conference, I will demonstrate the process of hyperprogression caused by immune checkpoint inhibitors.”

The scientists in the room looked confused. There were murmurs around the room.

“How will we be able to see that with our own eyes? Are you going to inject the immune checkpoint inhibitor in the mouse, then take it out and measure the size of the tumor? Like you did in your paper?” Jamie Anderson asked.

“No,” Young-Joon replied. “If we cut open a rat, we can only see the size of the tumor at that moment. It’s direct evidence, but I know you won’t believe it because it would be a discussion only based on the result after the fact. And since there are a lot of different factors at play inside an organism, you could argue that it’s not because of the immune checkpoint inhibitor but because of other characteristics of the mouse.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I will show you the hyperprogression outside of the rat’s body. Not in pictures, but in videos. You will be able to watch the process of the tumor expanding explosively with your own two eyes, not just the last moment of the tumor.”

“...”

The scientists were even more confused now. They all looked at each other like they didn’t understand this nonsense.

Young-Joon smiled. His cell phone rang with a message from Cheon Ji-Myung.

[We’ve attached an EGFR-mutant cancer cell to an organoid and created a mock tumor. The organoid has been treated, and you will be able to use it for your experiment in five days.]

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