At the recent American Association for Cancer Research meeting (AACR 2025), we asked cancer researchers working in biotech, pharma, and academia which cancer clinical trials or developments they’re keeping track of.
Which cancer clinical developments are you watching closely?
Credit: Laura Shachmut (Shachmut Photography)
Catherine Sabatos-Peyton, Chief Executive Officer at Larkspur Biosciences
Because we're interested in colorectal cancer, specifically microsatellite stable colorectal cancer, we're really curious to see what cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) inhibition will do. That could be huge for patients. We think that for ourselves, there's an opportunity to combine our drug LRK-A with standard of care immunotherapy, be it CTLA-4 or programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1). We're optimistic that it has its own monotherapy potential, but then in combination it also could actually sensitize patients to checkpoint blockade, which would be super exciting. I also think that some of the earlier-stage bispecifics that are coming up in the space like T cell engagers are a really intriguing strategy. Those are definitely ones we have our eyes on.
Credit: BPGbio
Niven Narain, President and Chief Executive Officer of BPGbio
We are looking at emerging assets and trials around mitochondrial control mechanisms. We're also following some of the data closely on immunotherapies in the tumor microenvironment and asking, how does the tumor microenvironment interplay with immunotherapy? Because for immunotherapy, some of the data has been stunning. It's been remarkable. Then personally, I'd like to see where some of the CRISPR work goes. Because if we can have fewer off-target effects and good safety profiles, I think that's really cool.
Credit: ThirdLaw Molecular
Christian Schafmeister, Founder and President of ThirdLaw Molecular
At ThirdLaw Molecular, we’re closely watching advances in targeted therapies, particularly those exploiting synthetic lethality and novel protein-protein interaction modulators. Molecules like bispecific T cell engagers (BiTEs), antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and stapled peptides are especially exciting to us. We're also highly interested in next-generation Kirsten rat sarcoma virus (KRAS) inhibitors and new modalities that go beyond “undruggable” targets, areas where precise molecular engineering is essential.
Credit: IO Biotech
Mads Hald Andersen, Cofounder and Scientific Advisor of IO Biotech
I am looking forward to data from NCT05533697, investigating mRNA-4359 — an mRNA vaccine targeting the epitopes from indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) — tested in combination with pembrolizumab in melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) from Moderna and Merck. This trial could offer critical insights into whether immune modulatory vaccines (IMVs) are effective in the context of mRNA vaccination and how they compare to peptide-based vaccines in the same indications. IMVs, like IO Biotech’s investigational IO102-IO103 (NCT05155254), have the potential to revolutionize cancer immunotherapy as combination agents capable of enhancing the activity of existing immunotherapeutic approaches.
Within the cancer vaccine space, I'm closely following the development of the cancer vaccine DPX-Survivac, which has demonstrated highly encouraging results in immune desert tumors when combined with checkpoint blockade. Several clinical trials are currently ongoing to further explore its therapeutic potential.
Naturally, the field is also paying close attention to Moderna and Merck’s mRNA-4157/V940 in combination with pembrolizumab in the KEYNOTE-942 clinical trial, as well as BioNTech’s iNeST platform (BNT122/RO7198457) — the latter being particularly noteworthy in the context of pancreatic cancer.
Outside of vaccines, bispecific agents like ivonescimab, a PD-1/vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) bispecific antibody being evaluated in the HARMONi-6 trial by Akeso, are generating substantial interest for their potential to reshape treatment paradigms in multiple tumor types.
Credit: City of Hope
David Craig, bioinformatician and translational scientist at City of Hope
I'm very much interested to see how some of these mRNA vaccine cancer trials pan out where we can design for a specific antigen. Those are really interesting, and they should be coming out pretty soon. We're very interested to see how different CAR T trials for solid tumors go. I think those are important aspects. At the end of the day, when it comes to trials, what's really driving me is what's going to change outcomes. Whatever the front-end tools are, I want to see the outcomes.
Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
