Experimental therapy fully eliminates cancer in trial

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals announced on Saturday that its experimental combination cancer therapy showed strong effectiveness, completely eliminating the disease in patients with blood cancer who had never received prior treatment.

The trial involved 22 patients and assessed the safety and efficacy of the company’s first candidate therapy, “odronextamab”, used alongside chemotherapy in individuals diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

Odronextamab is part of a class of treatments known as bispecific antibodies, engineered to bind simultaneously to a cancer cell and an immune cell, bringing them together so that the immune system can attack and destroy the cancer.

Regeneron added that patients who received the 160 mg dose of the therapy achieved a 100% complete response rate.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is an aggressive form of blood cancer that affects the lymphatic system — a network of tissues, vessels, and organs that helps the body fight infections. It involves abnormalities in B cells, a type of white blood cell crucial to immune defense.