Highlights
Cancer

Highlights

• Developed an oral arsenic preparation to treat leukaemia, a first patented prescription drug developed entirely in Hong Kong
• Identified and characterised cancer stem cells responsible for metastasis in colorectal cancer, and the development of liver cancer
• Discovered a new mechanism causing Lynch Syndrome that has become a diagnostic test adopted worldwide
• Established zebrafish as a model organism for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and identified novel therapeutic regimens for specific AML subtypes that improve patient outcomes
• Hepatitis B virus infection and hepatocellular carcinoma: from diagnosis and treatment of chronic carrier status, mechanisms of hepatocellular carcinogenesis, to development of novel treatment modalities including live-donor liver transplantation
• Groundbreaking and comprehensive genomic study of gastric and liver cancers

RGC Theme-based Research / Area of Excellence Scheme

• Project Coordinator: Professor Stephanie Kwai-yee MA (2025)
  • Understanding Phenotypic Plasticity in Hepatocellular Carcinoma to Mitigate Therapy Resistance and Tumor Recurrence
• Project Coordinator: Professor Xin-Yuan GUAN (2024)
  • Investigation of the immunosuppressive microenvironment in nasopharyngeal carcinoma
• Project Coordinator: Professor Xin-Yuan GUAN
  • Characterization of Tumor Microenvironment in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
• Project Coordinator: Professor Irene Oi-lin NG
  • Delineating and Translating the Mechanistic Determinants to Improve the Clinical Management of Liver Cancer
• Project Coordinator: Professor Anskar Yu-hung LEUNG (2020)
  • Towards Personalized and Innovative Treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia
• Project Coordinator: Professor Chung-mau LO (2019)
  • Fighting Disease Recurrence and Promoting Tissue Repair after Liver Transplantation: Translating Basic Discoveries to Clinical Excellence
• Project Coordinator: Professor Maria Li LUNG (2017)
  • Translational Studies for Elucidating the Tumor Heterogeneity and Molecular Evolution in Metastatic Gastrointestinal Tract Cancers for Personalized Medicine
• Project Coordinator: Professor Irene Oi-lin NG (2016)
  • Understanding Cancer Stemness in Liver Cancer - From Regulation to Translational Applications
• Project Coordinator: Professor Suet-Yi LEUNG (2016)
  • Gastric Cancer Genomics and Beyond - Moving from Patient Samples to 3D Organoid Cultures for Integrative Genomics Analysis, Drug Sensitivity Assays, Cell Biological Studies and Animal Models
• Project Coordinator: Professor Maria Li LUNG (2010)
  • Center for Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Research

RGC Research Impact Fund

• Project Coordinator: Professor Jack Chun-ming WONG (2026)
  • Single-base m6A epitranscriptomic profiling: A new frontier in cancer biomarker discovery and precision medicine
• Project Coordinator: Professor Stephanie Kwai-yee MA (2021)
  • Development and applications of a driver-dependent tumor organoid biobank for translational liver cancer research

State Key Laboratory

• State Key Laboratory of Liver Research

Other Strategic Project

• Centre for Clinical Innovation and Discovery (CCID) and Institute of Cancer Care (ICC)