Patient Stories

Preclinical Human Studies

Sophie Ryan

When our cofounder Tracy Ryan’s daughter Sophie was diagnosed with a low-grade brain tumor at 8½ months old, she and her husband, Josh, were devastated. Few advancements had been made in over 40-years for pediatric brain cancers, and the only option for Sophie was toxic chemos that had no chance of curing her disease. It became their mission to find a cure for Sophie, and other patients like her, that didn't have the same toxic outcomes of conventional therapies.


During this journey, Tracy was introduced to Dr. Jewett and learned of her focus on immune function. Dr. Jewett agreed to study Sophie’s immune system to better understand the underlying cause of the disease and assist the clinicians in developing a more effective treatment plan. 


Working with Sophie, and many other cancer patients over the years, Dr. Jewett developed unique insights into the functioning of the immune system and the pathways of disease that led her to the development of the activation method for supercharging NK cells. With the benefit of this research, it became clear to Tracy and Josh that Sophie’s best chance for a cure would be an infusion of sNK cells. 


The synergy between their two worlds led to the creation of NKore BioTherapeutics to commence the clinical development of the sNK cells to eventually make this therapeutic approach available to all cancer patients.


Sophie was the second patient, and first child, to ever receive NKore’s NK101 immunotherapy in December of 2023. She experienced no negative side effects, and her vision improved post-infusion. She received her second infusion in July of 2024 with no negative side effects and early signs of a positive clinical response. 


Infusion 1 Clinical Results

Scans Confirm Positive Clinical Response Post NK101 Infusion

First Infusion Clinical Results


  • Sophie received a single infusion of NK101 (100M sNK cells) on Dec 5, 2023. 
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  • No adverse safety events or side effects were reported.
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  • Opthamologist reported that Sophie’s vision was better than it had been in years, going from reading large print letter at 12 feet to 20 feet, and attributed the improvement to her NK Cell infusion.

First Infusion MRI Results


  • The MRI obtained 7 weeks post NK cell infusion (01/2024) displayed shrinkage in 2 planes and in overall volume (approximately 8% shrinkage in tumor volume).

  • Between 01/2024 and 06/2024, there was an increase in tumor size in all three planes and in tumor volume (60% increase in tumor volume), but increases of only 2mm x 3mm x 5mm. Radiologist did not consider this progression of disease.


Infusion 2 Clinical Results

Optic Pathway Glioma Demonstrates Response

Post Infusion Findings


  • Sophie received a second infusion of 160M sNKs on July 10, 2024.

  • No adverse reactions were observed.

  • A decrease in tumor size was notated when comparing to the 06/2024 scan (The suprasellar component measured 3.15 x 3.36 on July 10, 2024 as compared to 3.1 x 3.2 on September 9, 2024).


  • On December 30th, 2024 Sophie's 2nd MRI post infusion showed a large section of the tumor was gone while the remaining tumor appears peppered representing further cell death to the tumor.


What Could This Mean?

Immunotherapy causes immune cells to surround and infiltrate tumors, which can make the tumor appear larger on imaging tests. However, the tumor may actually be smaller, and the apparent increase in size is due to the surrounding immune cells infiltrating the disease.