LOS ANGELES, July 17 — A small California biotechnology company is quietly advancing a new approach to cancer treatment that targets the very fuel cancer cells need to survive, a strategy that could reshape how families across Asia and the world face a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer or leukemia. Trethera, a firm founded in 2015, is developing a drug called TRE-515 that zeroes in on an enzyme known as deoxycytidine kinase, or dCK.
This enzyme, according to a 2025 review published in collaboration with UCLA, represents a novel target in the fight against cancer. The approach is part of a broader category called metabolic cancer drugs, a niche but expanding subset of the global cancer therapeutics market.
That market was valued at roughly $150 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow. For communities in the Philippines, in Indonesia, in Vietnam, where healthcare costs can be a crushing burden on extended families, the promise of more effective treatments carries particular weight. The review suggests that a shift toward precision metabolism therapies could reduce healthcare costs by improving how well treatments work, meaning fewer rounds of ineffective drugs and less time spent in hospital beds.
A different kind of target
Most cancer drugs attack the tumour directly, often with brutal side effects. The metabolic approach is different. It targets the enzymes that cancer cells depend on to process nutrients and grow.
By blocking dCK, TRE-515 aims to starve the cancer of a key building block it needs to replicate its DNA. Trethera is a small player in a field dominated by pharmaceutical giants such as Pfizer and Merck.
The company has raised venture capital funding, though the 2025 review does not disclose specific financial details. If TRE-515 advances to Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials, it could begin to make a real impact on the market for pancreatic cancer and leukemia treatments — two of the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat cancers. Pancreatic cancer, in particular, has a grim prognosis.
For families across Asia, where rates of the disease are rising in countries like Japan and South Korea, any new option is watched closely. Leukemia, too, affects thousands of children and adults across the region every year.
What happens next
The path from a promising laboratory finding to a drug that reaches patients is long and uncertain. Trethera must navigate clinical trials, regulatory approvals, and the challenge of competing with far larger companies that have deeper pockets and established sales networks. But the 2025 review with UCLA signals that the scientific community sees dCK as a target worth pursuing.
That recognition could attract more investment, not just to Trethera but to the entire field of metabolic cancer drugs. For the moment, the company remains a small firm with a big idea, working on a treatment that, if successful, could one day reach families far beyond the research labs of California.
Sources
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