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I-SPY2.2 tested trastuzumab-deruxtecan plus rilvegostomig before surgery in high-risk HER2-negative breast cancer. In immune-positive tumours 54% had a complete response, and most of them avoided anthracyclines.
GSK's PD-1 blocker won accelerated US approval on 19 October for previously untreated stage II/III dMMR rectal cancer. In the single-arm AZUR-1 trial, most patients avoided surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.
The FDA approved Tecentriq on 8 October, with chemotherapy, for Stage III mismatch repair deficient colon cancer after resection. In ATOMIC, adding it cut disease-free survival events, hazard ratio 0.50.
On 14 October the FDA extended nogapendekin alfa inbakicept-pmln, with BCG, to BCG-unresponsive papillary-only disease - a first for that group - without a new trial, by extrapolating from its carcinoma-in-situ data.
In a 28-patient single-arm phase 2 study, disitamab vedotin with tislelizumab produced a complete response in 73% of evaluable HER2-positive bladder cancers that could not be resected. There was no comparator.
ESO-T01 builds cancer-killing T cells inside the body, skipping the cell harvest and chemo prep normal CAR-T needs. All four responded — but the cells faded, and median progression-free survival was 4 months.
A phase 1/2 trial gave mosunetuzumab plus polatuzumab to 101 older, unfit or frail people with untreated large B-cell lymphoma. The end-of-treatment response rate was 61.4%, with a complete response in 56.4%.
A single-arm phase 2 trial added glofitamab to pola-R-CHP in 41 people with newly diagnosed B-cell lymphoma. The best complete-response rate was 95%, cytokine release stayed grade 1, and no neurotoxicity was reported.
Final results of the phase 3 IMpassion050 trial show adding the immunotherapy atezolizumab to standard HER2-targeted treatment did not improve event-free or disease-free survival.
In the DIABIL-2 trial, low-dose interleukin-2 hit its immune target in people newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, yet failed to preserve insulin-producing cells at one year.
BeiGene's PD-1 antibody, added to the HER2 drug zanidatamab and chemotherapy, lifted median overall survival to 26.4 months from 19.2 in the HERIZON-GEA-01 trial. The gain concentrated in the strongest HER2-expressers.
The final analysis of Roche's phase 3 trial found the anti-TIGIT antibody did not significantly extend progression-free or overall survival when added to atezolizumab in 521 patients.
In the phase 3 SWOG/NRG S1914 trial, adding atezolizumab to stereotactic radiotherapy for high-risk, inoperable early lung cancer left 2-year survival at 82% in both groups and caused more serious side effects.
In 709 children with high-risk B-cell ALL, swapping two chemotherapy cycles for the T-cell-engaging antibody lifted four-year event-free survival to 83% from 70% and sharply cut serious infections.
LITESPARK-022 cut the risk of recurrence by 28% when belzutifan was added to pembrolizumab after surgery. Survival was no different, and severe side effects nearly doubled.
Adding the immunotherapy to perioperative chemotherapy improved overall survival in resectable gastric and junction cancer — crossing the significance line the interim analysis had missed.
Adding pembrolizumab plus maintenance olaparib to first-line chemotherapy improved progression-free survival — but pembrolizumab added without olaparib did nothing at all.
In a 15-patient phase 1 trial, TX103 cells delivered directly into the brain were tolerated and median survival reached 19.1 months — but this is early, single-arm evidence with no control group.
A small single-arm trial of the PD-1/CTLA-4 antibody cadonilimab with lenvatinib reported a 40.6% response rate in previously treated advanced endometrial cancer.
In the NSABP B-59 trial, adding the immunotherapy to neoadjuvant chemotherapy did not significantly improve event-free survival, while immune-related side effects more than doubled.
In the single-arm EPCORE NHL-2 cohort, adding epcoritamab to rituximab and lenalidomide produced responses in 95% of 41 untreated follicular lymphoma patients, with no control group to prove added benefit.
In HERIZON-GEA-01, zanidatamab plus chemotherapy raised median progression-free survival to 12.4 months from 8.1 with trastuzumab. A clear survival gain came only when tislelizumab was added.
Moderna and Merck's personalized vaccine slowed melanoma's return when added to Keytruda. It is the first mRNA cancer vaccine to succeed at scale — and the first real test of a decade-old idea.
The final HARMONi-A analysis reports a 2.7-month gain in median overall survival — 16.8 versus 14.1 months — for the PD-1/VEGF bispecific added to chemotherapy in a China-only phase 3 trial.
In KEYNOTE-B15/EV-304, perioperative enfortumab vedotin plus pembrolizumab lifted two-year event-free survival to 79.4% from 66.2% against standard cisplatin-based chemotherapy in patients fit for it.
The MITRIC basket trial gave 12 patients with immunotherapy-resistant cancer stool transplants from patients who had responded. It was safe but produced no objective tumour responses.
Nous-209 targets 209 mutations shared across a whole class of tumours, so it can be manufactured in advance. What the trial has not yet shown is that anyone got less cancer.
In the MajesTEC-9 trial, the bispecific antibody teclistamab cut the risk of progression or death by 71% against standard three- and two-drug regimens. Serious infections were common.
In the phase 3 ATOMIC trial, atezolizumab on top of standard FOLFOX chemotherapy raised three-year disease-free survival to 86.3% from 76.2% after surgery for stage III dMMR colon cancer.
In a Chinese phase 2–3 trial, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, lenvatinib and a PD-1 antibody before liver surgery lifted median event-free survival to 18.0 months from 8.7. The survival signal was not yet conclusive.
A three-year update of RATIONALE-309 found tislelizumab plus chemotherapy lengthened median progression-free survival to 9.6 months from 7.4. The overall-survival gain was not statistically significant on its own.
In KEYNOTE-905/EV-303, adding enfortumab vedotin and pembrolizumab to surgery lifted two-year event-free survival to 74.7% from 39.4%. Serious side effects were common.
In the phase 3 ASCENT-04 trial, sacituzumab govitecan with pembrolizumab lifted median progression-free survival to 11.2 months from 7.8 in PD-L1-positive disease. Survival data are immature.
The Nature paper pairs mouse mechanism with retrospective human cohorts: vaccination within 100 days of starting a checkpoint inhibitor was associated with better survival. Retrospective is the load-bearing word.