Immunotherapy combinations show promise in treating refractory solid tumors

New clinical data and animal studies suggest significant progress in treating refractory solid tumors through combination immunotherapies.

In a phase Ib/II study (BNT324-01) presented at the World Conference on Lung Cancer, the combination of pumitamig—a bispecific antibody targeting PD-L1 and VEGF-A—and elfetabart drozuntecan, an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting B7-H3, achieved a 70.4% objective response rate in patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The efficacy was particularly high in first-line treatment, reaching 92.3%. This combination, developed by BioNTech and DualityBio, aims to simultaneously address tumor immunosuppression and angiogenesis.

In separate research led by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, scientists observed that combining invikafusp-alfa with anti-PD-1 therapy significantly improved outcomes in animal models of various solid tumors. In models of heterotopic colon carcinoma, the combination therapy induced long-term complete cure rates between 83% and 100%, compared to 20% for invikafusp-alfa monotherapy. Similar success was noted in lung cancer models, with a 50% cure rate and significant survival extension, as well as in aggressive prostate cancer models where previous monotherapies had failed.