Izuchukwu Okpalanwaka is a pharmacist and a doctoral researcher at the Texas Tech University Health Science Center (TTUHSC), United States. He is also the co-founder of the Tropical Medical Oncology Awareness Foundation. In this interview by Kingsley Alumona, he speaks about his work and cancer issues in Nigeria.
What inspired you to pursue a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences, and why did you choose Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center?
It has always been my dream to help provide healthcare solutions to patients. Having worked as a community and clinical pharmacist for over five years, I realised that many challenging illnesses still do not have any cure. Ailments like hypertension, HIV, cancer, etc., still do not have a cure, and the mortality rate of these illnesses keeps rising in many developing countries. This inspired me to become a research pharmacist, where I can join the efforts towards finding cures for some of these illnesses. Getting a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences is the best way to be equipped and trained in the science of drug discovery, development, and delivery.
Texas Tech University Health Science Center (TTUHSC) is a leader in pharmaceutical research. The faculty in TTUHSC’s biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences program has numerous patents for their discoveries—a testament to their research prowess. Most of these professors have also received prestigious NIH research grants to fund their research. This also highlights the recognition and importance of their research.
What area of pharmacy are you specialising in for your PhD and why? What is your PhD research work about, and what are its potential findings?
My PhD research is in the area of cancer immunotherapy. I worked in the oncology unit during my clinical rotation at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) as a pharmacy student. There, I saw firsthand the challenges that cancer patients face. The only available treatment at that time for patients with metastasized disease was chemotherapy, which had numerous adverse effects on these patients while only slightly improving their survival rate. It was difficult explaining to the patients that there is no guaranteed cure for their ailments, and these experiences inspired my interest in cancer research.
As an expert in cancer immunotherapy, I aim to bring safer, efficacious, and affordable therapeutic options to these patients. In my PhD research, I develop immunotherapies like dendritic cell vaccines and bispecific antibodies, which we test on mouse cancer models as a potential treatment for colon, breast, and lung cancer. So far, we have shown that our dendritic cell vaccines and Listeria-based vaccines are effective in a mouse colon cancer model. These can offer treatment options to colon cancer patients, especially those with advanced disease. I received the American Association for Cancer Research Scholar-in-Training award in 2024, highlighting our excellent research accomplishments.
As someone who researches cancer immunotherapy, explain to us how immunotherapy works in cancer treatment and prevention.
Immunotherapy is a type of therapy that uses a person’s immune system to fight cancer, infection, and other diseases. In cancer, immunotherapy can boost or modulate how the immune system works, enabling the body to eliminate cancer cells more effectively. Immunotherapies have shown that they can provide safe but efficacious anticancer activity.
One of the most widely used immunotherapies is the immune checkpoint inhibitors. This group of therapies works by removing the break or regulation the body puts on killer T cells. Since killer T cells are cytotoxic, the body uses checkpoint molecules to control its cytotoxic activities, thereby preventing healthy cells from being killed. This usually prevents killer T cells from engaging and killing malignant cells since these cells resemble normal cells. Immune checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapies help allow killer T cells to identify and kill these malignant cells by blocking the regulatory brakes on them.
What are the latest studies or findings in pharmaceutical cancer studies? What do these findings mean to cancer patients?
Recently, advancements in biotechnology and cancer research have provided many technologies that help offer better treatment options to cancer patients. Although cancer remains among the leading causes of death in many countries of the world, advancements have improved the survival rate of most cancer types in the last decade. Immunotherapies have revolutionised cancer treatment. Immunotherapies like chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies have shown a near 100 per cent cure rate in certain types of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. RNA-encoded antibodies, bispecific, and immune checkpoint antibodies have all improved cancer patients’ overall survival.
Also, improvements in cancer screening technology, rapid genetic testing, and RNA sequencing technology have expanded the field of personalised medicine, which allows patients to be treated with medications that are best suited for the mutations underlying their type of cancer. This is a significant shift from the one-size-fits-all approach in practice, which only shows efficacy in a few patients.
There is this disturbing fact that the more research and medical interventions on cancer treatments, the more cancer cases are recorded across the world. What could you say about this?
While this is debatable, one possible reason this may seem to be the case is that the more advancements in cancer screening techniques, the faster the diagnosis. This does not necessarily mean that cancer research is leading to more cancer; instead, it leads to efficient and early diagnosis of existing but undiagnosed cancer. This is beneficial to the patients since early diagnosis is one of the factors that help to predict a cancer patient’s survival.
Cancer studies and treatments, especially in your home country, Nigeria, are expensive and difficult to access. What advice do you have for cancer patients and their caregivers in Nigeria regarding this?
Cancer studies and treatments are expensive globally. Many newly developed technologies used in cancer research, diagnosis, and treatment are still under patent coverage, which usually affects the usage cost. To help ensure that patients have access to affordable life-saving cancer treatments, government and healthcare stakeholders in Nigeria and many developing nations should partner to provide universal health coverage that can subsidise the cost of cancer treatment. Also, the government should invest in and encourage robust cancer research to help provide more treatment options and lower the cost per treatment.
Aside from your PhD work, are you involved in any research or humanitarian projects?
Yes. In addition to my doctoral research, I have cofounded a cancer research and awareness foundation called Tropical Medical Oncology Awareness Foundation, a nonprofit organisation registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria.
This foundation aims to advance oncology research and awareness in Nigeria and other tropical countries. About 57 percent of all new cancer cases occur in low-income countries. We hope to reduce the mortality rate associated with some cancers that disproportionately affect tropical societies.
So far, we have provided scholarships to students to attend and present research findings at international conferences. We engage in workshops where early-career scientists are introduced and trained in the principles of cancer immunotherapy.
In the future, we plan to evaluate the current treatment guidelines used in many developing countries and align them with those in countries that have shown better management of cancer cases.
What is next for you after completing your PhD in the United States? Where do you see yourself and your career in five years?
Since working in cancer immunotherapy research, I am excited about my progress in the past four years. I have published and reviewed numerous peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals. My efforts have also not gone unnoticed. I have received multiple awards, including the Scholar-in-Training Award from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the world’s most prominent and oldest cancer professional association. I have also received the Helen Hodges Charitable Award for my excellent academic activities in a Texas South Plain institution of higher education
After my PhD, along with these achievements, I hope to continue working in cancer immunotherapy research by doing a postdoctoral fellowship. After that, I hope to set up a research laboratory to continue cancer immunotherapy research as a principal investigator.
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