MD-PhD student advances alternatives to chemotherapy through USF Health–Moffitt partnership

Vincent Lok envisions a future where the body's own immune system becomes a more powerful tool for combatting cancer than conventional chemotherapy.

As an MD-PhD student in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, Lok is advancing that vision through his research at Moffitt Cancer Center. His work seeks to expand the potential use of a promising treatment approach developed by Moffitt researchers known as dendritic cell (DC) immunotherapy.

DC immunotherapy uses specialized immune cells to alert the immune system to the presence of cancer. Acting as messengers, these cells train the body's cancer-fighting T cells to identify and target tumors.

In clinical trials at Moffitt, DC therapy has shown robust tumor regression in HER2-positive breast cancer, a form of the disease driven by high levels of a protein that promotes cancer cell growth.

Lok has witnessed the therapy's promise firsthand. For three years, he has trained under Brian Czerniecki, MD, PhD, chair and senior member in the Moffitt Cancer Center Department of Breast Oncology, who has developed dendritic cell vaccines and therapies.

"I've had the opportunity to see Dr. Czerniecki with patients who have been treated with the therapy that he's been working with for the past 20 years," Lok said. "We've seen tremendous clinical safety with only mild flu-like symptoms and clearance of systemic metastasis, despite only being injected in the primary site."

Lok's research aims to take these efforts a step further by extending that same immunotherapy to a broader spectrum of cancers, including metastatic cancers that can no longer be surgically removed.

He is exploring whether lipid antigens - fat-based molecules that activate immune cells - can enhance dendritic cell therapy to be effective against many types of cancer.

The treatment involves removing cells from a patient and exposing them to cancer-related antigens, before reinjecting the cells back into tumors. This allows the dendritic cells to present those antigens to other immune cells and train them to attack cancer cells carrying the markers.

"There is an urgent need to find therapies that are better than standard chemotherapy, since these treatments have many side effects and don't provide lasting immune memory against recurrence or relapse," Lok said.

Findings from Lok's research and other studies at Czerniecki's lab have helped support compassionate-use programs, which give patients with stage IV metastatic cancer access to experimental therapies outside traditional clinical trials. These carefully regulated programs, which require FDA and IRB approval, provide eligible patients an opportunity to receive investigational DC therapies before they become part of standard cancer care.

Czerniecki said that Lok's work has already advanced the field's understanding of how dendritic cell therapy can stimulate a broader immune response, with direct implications for patients with metastatic cancer.

"Lok has identified how invariant natural killer T cells can change the tumor microenvironment so that when we administer dendritic cells, the innate immune response contributes to causing tumors to go away," Czerniecki said. "It has actually helped patients with metastatic cancer have their breast cancer disappear completely."

While Lok's discoveries are helping advance new immunotherapies, his groundbreaking research was made possible because of the MD-PhD program's close partnership with Moffitt, where students can train and research alongside nationally renowned cancer physician-scientists.

Kenneth Wright, PhD, associate center director for research education and training at Moffitt and professor of oncologic sciences at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, said MD-PhD students like Lok play a critical role in driving innovation because they are uniquely positioned to bridge scientific discovery and patient care.

"MD-PhD students bring incredible passion and drive along with an outstanding educational background, allowing them to identify and develop novel, clinically relevant research projects," Wright said. "The partnership with Moffitt further gives students the opportunity to train under world experts in cancer research and care, where they can directly contribute to cutting-edge research and see it translate into patient care in our clinics."

Lok, who is entering his sixth year of the eight-year program, expresses similar sentiments, saying the chance to work at Moffitt as he completes his degree was a major factor in his decision to attend USF Health.

"I wanted to not only study promising treatments but also see how they affect patients, and the collaboration between USF Health and Moffitt offered exactly what I was looking for," he said. "I don't think at other institutions you would find such a deeply integrated, bench-to-bedside model that you can experience here at USF."

Learn more about USF Health's MD-PhD program.