Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have reported a run of new studies, and the headline result is in lung cancer. Several are being presented at the 2026 American Society for Radiation Oncology Annual Meeting, which ran September 26 to 30. Early findings suggest progress in places where options have been thin. Most of it is still at an early stage.
Lung cancer: a Phase 3 result
The global Phase 3 HARMONi trial, published in The Lancet Oncology, tested ivonescimab, a bispecific immunotherapy, in patients with EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer. Those who got ivonescimab with chemotherapy were 48 percent less likely to see their cancer progress, or to die, than those on chemotherapy alone. Median time without worsening was 6.8 months, against 4.4 months. Tumor responses improved too, and the safety profile was manageable.
Trial co-lead Xiuning Le explained why it matters. EGFR-targeted drugs eventually stop working in nearly every patient, and options after that are limited. The results suggest, she said, that adding ivonescimab to chemotherapy “can extend disease control and may offer an important new option for these patients.”
Prostate cancer: how tumors hide
A laboratory study in Cancer Discovery looked at castration-resistant prostate cancer. Di Zhao and Nicholas Navin found that the immune checkpoint molecule B7-H3 does more than quiet the immune system. It also reshapes the tissue around the tumor in ways that help cancer grow and resist treatment. That may explain why drugs aimed only at B7-H3 have shown limited benefit. The encouraging part: in preclinical models, pairing a B7-H3-targeted therapy with a MEK inhibitor improved antitumor responses and prolonged survival. These are animal and lab results, not yet tested in patients.
Targeting a DNA repair weakness
In a Phase 1 trial in Nature Medicine, VVD-133214 (formerly RO7589831) became the first covalent inhibitor of Werner helicase tested in people. Many tumors depend on that DNA repair enzyme, especially those that already have defects in other repair routes. Normal cells can manage without it. Timothy Yap, who led the trial, said the drug appeared generally safe and showed promising antitumor activity, in patients who have few options. Larger trials will show whether the durable responses seen so far hold up.
Sparing some patients chemotherapy
The largest study to date of localized appendix cancer, in JAMA Surgery, found that fewer than 10 percent of patients had a recurrence after surgery. Chemotherapy after surgery was not tied to better survival or fewer relapses, even in higher-risk patients. Lead author John Paul Shen said appendix cancer has its own biology and, for most patients with localized disease, the risk of relapse is low.
Managing immunotherapy side effects
Two studies looked at inflammatory side effects that can force patients to stop treatment. In an early-phase trial, nearly 77 percent of the first 13 patients with immunotherapy-related colitis improved after fecal microbiota transplantation, with symptoms easing in a median of 1.5 days. Eight of the 10 who responded stayed in remission during follow-up.
Separately, Jia Wu’s team built an artificial intelligence model that reads routine chest CT scans taken before treatment to flag future pneumonitis, a lung inflammation affecting roughly 10 percent of lung cancer patients on immunotherapy. It outperformed current methods that rely on subjective image review.
Patients should keep in mind that trials report averages, and no result here applies automatically to any one person. If you or a family member has lung or prostate cancer, talk to your doctor about which of these approaches, if any, might be worth discussing.
Sources
- MD Anderson Unveils Wave of Cancer Breakthroughs From Lung Immunotherapy to
- From radioactive tiles to AI maps: MD Anderson unveils five cancer advances
- Paper touted by MD Anderson gets expression of concern for data ‘concerns’
Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel (CC BY 4.0)
