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Clinical research

ASPiring metabolic-immunotherapy by ASParaginase

Nature Metabolism (2025)Cite this article

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l-Asparaginase (L-ASP) is a standard therapy for leukemias but not solid tumours. In a compassionate-use trial for nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Chang et al. report that L-ASP enhances the anti-tumour T cell response with clinical benefits when combined with pembrolizumab. This study provides proof of concept for ‘metabolic-immunotherapy’ in cancer.

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Fig. 1: Metabolic-immunotherapy optimizes anti-tumour T cell response and confers clinical benefits on cancer patients.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Childhood Cancer Research, Hematology/Oncology & BMT, Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Department of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Rushil Shah & Ruoning Wang

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  1. Rushil Shah
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  2. Ruoning Wang
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Correspondence to Ruoning Wang.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Shah, R., Wang, R. ASPiring metabolic-immunotherapy by ASParaginase. Nat Metab (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-025-01241-w

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