Oncology Research

WASHINGTON – October 29, 2026 -- LUNGevity Foundation and the Rising Tide Foundation for Clinical Cancer Research (RTFCCR) have awarded $620,000 to an early-phase clinical trial at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. The trial will test whether pairing two FDA-approved drugs can stop resistance to osimertinib in EGFR-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Resistance to EGFR inhibitors affects a sizable share of NSCLC patients

About 15% of NSCLC patients in the US and 35% in East Asia have tumors with an EGFR gene mutation that drives cancer growth. Multiple generations of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) stop growth in these tumors. Over time, however, tumors develop resistance and resume growing. The cause is drug-tolerant persister (DTP) cells, which adapt and evolve to evade treatment.

WASHINGTON – October 29, 2026 -- LUNGevity Foundation and patient advocacy group RETpositive have awarded a combined $340,000 to two research projects targeting drug resistance in RET-positive cancers, where tumors eventually outlast the two FDA-approved RET tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs).

RET fusions drive 1% to 2% of non-small cell lung cancers

RET fusions occur when part of the RET gene joins with another gene. Beyond lung cancer, RET alterations appear in thyroid, colon and breast cancers. Both approved TKIs can be effective, but tumors evolve resistance and resume growth, which the organizations name as the critical priority for patients.

Pittsburgh – October 17, 2026 -- Allegheny Health Network (AHN) Cancer Center has launched RANDY'S Trial, a clinical study funded by a gala that raised $44,000 in 2025, to test whether existing medications can break down fibrosis that blocks surgery in patients with appendiceal and other peritoneal cancers.

The trial is formally titled Repurposed And Naturally-Derived Drugs for the Treatment of Fibrosis in Peritoneal Carcinomatosis. It is supported by The Randy & Stephanie Meyer Spread Goodness Fund and is named for the late Lt. Randy Meyer II, a City of Pittsburgh firefighter who battled a rare form of appendix cancer for more than a decade.

LONDON – – October 07, 2026 -- OncoBayes has completed preclinical work on OB-001, an oral drug candidate designed to overcome antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) resistance and boost brain penetration of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), the privately held clinical-stage pharmaceutical company announced.

OB-001 raises osimertinib brain exposure by nearly 400% in mouse studies

In perfused-brain mouse models, pretreatment with OB-001 increased brain exposure of osimertinib by almost 400%, while plasma exposure remained broadly unchanged. The data, presented at AACR 2026, covered four gold-standard kinase inhibitors and showed systemic drug levels were largely unaffected by the efflux-pump inhibition.

Tokyo – October 07, 2026 -- Astellas Pharma Inc. (TSE: 4503) will present 21 abstracts from its oncology portfolio at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress 2026, running October 23-27 in Madrid, Spain.

Enfortumab vedotin combination shows longest follow-up data yet in urothelial cancer

Presentations on PADCEV (enfortumab vedotin) plus pembrolizumab include the longest follow-up reported to date for patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer, alongside subgroup and treatment-setting analyses. Additional data cover trials in progress evaluating bladder preservation strategies in muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

Cambridge, Mass. – October 02, 2026 -- Marengo Therapeutics will present interim results from its STARt-002 trial combining invikafusp alfa with Gilead's TRODELVY (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy) at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer's 41st Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, November 4-8, 2026.

STARt-002 pairs a T-cell agonist with an antibody-drug conjugate for the first time in clinical testing

The Phase 1b/2 study tests invikafusp alfa, a Vβ6-selective dual T-cell agonist, alongside TRODELVY's TROP2-directed cytotoxic payload delivery. Marengo's Chief Medical Officer Kevin Chin said the ADC is designed to release tumor antigens and inflame the tumor microenvironment, priming less immunogenic tumors for T-cell-mediated responses that invikafusp alfa can then amplify.

Morristown, N.J. – September 17, 2026 -- Whitehawk Therapeutics (Nasdaq: WHWK) presented real-world data at the IASLC 2026 World Conference on Lung Cancer in Seoul showing that PTK7 expression remains stable in pretreated, EGFR wild-type non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), reinforcing the target biology behind its Phase 1 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) HWK-007.

Seoul – September 17, 2026 -- Risvutatug rezetecan (Ris-Rez), a B7-H3-directed antibody-drug conjugate, reduced the risk of death by 54% compared with topotecan in patients with relapsed small-cell lung cancer, according to Phase III ARTEMIS-008 trial results presented at the IASLC 2026 World Conference on Lung Cancer.

Ris-Rez extends median overall survival to 18.5 months versus 10.3 months for topotecan

The multicenter, open-label trial (NCT06498479) randomized 461 patients in China 1:1 to receive Ris-Rez at 8.0 mg/kg every three weeks or topotecan at 1.2 mg/m2 on days 1 through 5 every three weeks. More than 80% of enrolled patients had previously received PD-(L)1 inhibitors. At the September 17, 2026 data cutoff, after a median follow-up of 12.2 months, the hazard ratio for death favored Ris-Rez at 0.46 (95% CI, 0.35–0.62; P0.0001), with the survival benefit consistent across relevant subgroups.

Tel Aviv and Oslo – September 16, 2026 -- BioLineRx Ltd. (NASDAQ/TASE: BLRX) and Hemispherian AS will present two abstracts on their oncology candidate GLIX1 at the 21st Meeting of the European Association of Neuro-Oncology (EANO 2026) in Rome, Italy, September 24-27, with one abstract selected for oral presentation.