New publication in Cell Death & Disease demonstrates the versatility and safety of Vartumab for cytotoxic payload delivery in oncology

On January 27, 2026 Var2 Pharmaceuticals reported the development of new, clinically-effective Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs) has been hampered by a lack of suitable target antigens, particularly those which target both cancer and cancer-supporting stromal cells. Oncofetal chondroitin sulfate (ofCS) is an attractive target in this regard, as it is not only broadly expressed across many solid tumors while being largely absent from healthy adult tissues, but also because it enables selective targeting of both cancer cells and tumor stroma.

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In this study, we evaluated two clinically validated linker-payloads with bystander effect: vc–MMAE and ggfg–DXd. Vartumab ADCs using either linker-payload maintained specificity to ofCS, and showed strong and specific tumor uptake in animals. Both ADCs display potent anti-tumor activities. Importantly, ADCs equipped with membrane-permeable payloads induced efficient bystander killing, eliminating not only antigen-positive cancer cells but also antigen-negative tumor cells (genetic knockout). Repeat dosing of Vartumab ADC bearing the vc-MMAE linker payload in rats up to 5 mg/kg showed similar dose limiting toxicities to clinically approved MMAE-conjugated ADCs.

These findings further strengthen ofCS as a pan-cancer target, and provide a strong preclinical rationale for advancing Vartumab-based ADCs into clinical development.

(Press release, Var2 Pharmaceuticals, JAN 27, 2026, View Source [SID1234662295])

StarkAge Therapeutics Announces Research Collaboration with Gustave Roussy to Advance Senolytic Therapies in Digestive Cancers

On January 27, 2026 StarkAge Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing first-in-class senolytic antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) in age-related diseases, with an initial focus on oncology, reported a research collaboration with Gustave Roussy, Europe’s leading cancer center. The program is dedicated to characterize cellular senescence induced by standard of care (SoC) treatments in a large series of digestive cancers. The result will inform the clinical development of STX-01, a first-in-class senolytic ADC targeting DDP4, a specific marker of senescence, frequently constitutively expressed on primary tumors and/or overexpressed in metastases.

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Benjamin Le Calvé, Chief Executive Officer of StarkAge Therapeutics, and Eric Angevin, Chief Medical Officer, commented: "This collaboration with Gustave Roussy is an important step as we move forward to IND-enabling studies. Gustave Roussy has an exceptional expertise in digestive cancers, pathology and computational biology and the results will help us enrich the positioning of STX-1 and accelerate the development of senescence-targeted therapies for patients with high medical need."

Antoine Hollebecque, MD, Gastrointestinal cancers at the Department of drug development (DITEP) at Gustave Roussy, added: "Senescence is induced by certain anticancer treatments, and accumulation of senescent cells within tumors significantly reduces patient survival. This collaboration with StarkAge will generate high-resolution biological insights and could open new therapeutic avenues to eliminate both senescent and malignant cells in refractory cancer patients."

Conducted under a research agreement with Gustave Roussy and its technology transfer affiliate, Gustave Roussy Transfert, this collaboration will combine StarkAge’s expertise in senescence biology with Gustave Roussy’s world-class capabilities in multiplexed pathology, and computational oncology.

About senescence and cancer

Although they no longer divide and have ceased to exercise their original function, senescent cells accumulate in aged or diseased tissues and release pro-inflammatory molecules that contribute to the development of numerous associated pathologies such as cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, fibroses (renal, cardiac, pulmonary, and hepatic), and skeletal pathologies such as osteoarthritis.

In cancers, many treatments, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and targeted therapies, are known to induce senescence of cancer cells, contributing to drug resistance, metastatic dissemination, and local immunosuppression. Accumulation of senescent cells within tumors is strongly associated with poorer outcomes, significantly reducing patient survival.

About DPP4 and STX-1

StarkAge has identified DPP4 (CD26), a highly selective marker of cellular senescence and a relevant tumor-associated antigen, leading to the development of proprietary monoclonal antibodies. STX-1 is a first-in-class DPP4-targeted ADC, currently in preclinical development.

(Press release, StarkAge Therapeutics, JAN 27, 2026, View Source [SID1234662292])

Kazia Therapeutics Reports Encouraging Preliminary Clinical Responses in Ongoing Phase 1b Study of Paxalisib in Late-Stage Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

On January 27, 2026 Kazia Therapeutics (NASDAQ: KZIA), reported a clinical update from its ongoing Phase 1b study evaluating paxalisib in combination with pembrolizumab and chemotherapy in patients with late-stage (Stage IV), metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

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To date, three patients with metastatic TNBC treated with paxalisib-based regimens have demonstrated meaningful clinical responses, including two partial responses (PRs) in trial participants and one confirmed complete metabolic response (CR) in a patient treated under an expanded access program.

Clinical Highlights


2 of 2 evaluable patients enrolled in the Phase 1b trial achieved partial responses


One advanced metastatic TNBC patient achieved a confirmed complete metabolic response following re-treatment with pembrolizumab/chemotherapy plus paxalisib (under an expanded access protocol)


Responses observed in patients with visceral disease and multi-organ metastases


Median time on treatment to date is approximately 6.1 months, with all patients continuing on therapy at the time of this update


Paxalisib continues to demonstrate a generally favorable safety and tolerability profile when combined with pembrolizumab and chemotherapy at the 30 mg daily dose

The ongoing Phase 1b trial is a multi-center, open-label, randomized study initiated in June 2025 designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and preliminary clinical activity of paxalisib in patients with advanced breast cancer, including TNBC, in combination with either: Pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy (current standard-of-care first-line regimen) or Olaparib (advanced breast cancer patients with BRCA mutations). Eligibility for the pembrolizumab-containing cohort required PD-L1–positive disease (CPS ≥10), consistent with standard-of-care practice in metastatic TNBC.

Patient 1 – Partial Response

A 61-year-old female with metastatic TNBC involving the left upper lobe of the lung, initiated treatment with paxalisib (30 mg daily) in combination with pembrolizumab and gemcitabine/carboplatin in June 2025. After nine cycles of therapy, serial imaging demonstrated continued tumor reduction at each assessment, culminating in a partial response by iRECIST criteria. The patient remains active on study.

Patient 2 – Partial Response with Complete Resolution of a Target Lesion

A 47-year-old female with extensively metastatic TNBC involving the lung, liver, bone, and lymph nodes, initiated treatment with paxalisib (30 mg daily) in combination with pembrolizumab and gemcitabine/carboplatin in October 2025. Following three treatment cycles, imaging demonstrated a partial response, including complete resolution of a target lung lesion and the patient remains active on study.

Patient 3 – Confirmed Complete Metabolic Response

A 44-year-old female with metastatic TNBC who had previously received pembrolizumab/chemotherapy experienced disease progression involving bone and lung metastases in early 2025. Although ineligible for the formal trial due to prior pembrolizumab exposure, the patient was re-treated beginning in June 2025 with pembrolizumab/chemotherapy plus paxalisib (30 mg daily) under physician supervision. On November 10, 2025, FDG PET/CT imaging demonstrated no evidence of active malignancy, consistent with a complete metabolic response. This complete metabolic response was confirmed on follow-up imaging in January 2026, and the patient remains on paxalisib and pembrolizumab therapy.

Paxalisib has been generally well tolerated in combination with pembrolizumab and chemotherapy. Approximately 75% of adverse events (AEs) were assessed as unlikely or unrelated to paxalisib. The paxalisib-related AEs were expected and predominantly mild to moderate, consistent with prior studies. At the 30 mg daily dose, one case of Grade 1 hyperglycemia has been observed, requiring no intervention. Two serious adverse events (SAEs) have been reported to date, both deemed unrelated to paxalisib.

Following an initial targeted site activation phase designed to ensure rigorous protocol execution and informed by encouraging early clinical signals from the first patients treated, the Company expects to activate two additional clinical sites by April 2026, with two further sites planned for mid-2026. Kazia continues to anticipate the targeted enrollment of twelve TNBC pts target by the end of 2026 and topline data readout in early 2027

Kazia is also evaluating paxalisib in additional breast cancer populations, including earlier-stage TNBC and hormone receptor–positive, HER2-negative (HR+ / HER2-) breast cancer, where dysregulation of the PI3K/mTOR pathway is well established. Paxalisib’s oral, once-daily administration offers a potentially convenient treatment option with minimal incremental burden to patients and clinical sites, an important consideration as the Company explores expansion into broader breast cancer populations. The Company will provide updates as these programs advance.

"While these observations represent a preliminary read from ongoing studies, the consistency and depth of responses we are seeing including tumor regression across multiple metastatic sites and a complete metabolic response are highly encouraging," said Dr. John Friend, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Kazia Therapeutics. "Confirmed complete responses in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer are exceedingly rare, particularly in patients who have already progressed on standard therapies. These early data reinforce our belief that paxalisib has the potential to meaningfully enhance the activity of existing immunotherapy-based regimens, and we look forward to generating additional clinical and translational insights throughout the year."

(Press release, Kazia Therapeutics, JAN 27, 2026, View Source [SID1234662291])

Greenwich LifeSciences Provides Update on FLAMINGO-01 Cash Burn Rate and Financing Strategy

On January 27, 2026 Greenwich LifeSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: GLSI) (the "Company"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on its Phase III clinical trial, FLAMINGO-01, which is evaluating Fast Track designated GLSI-100, an immunotherapy to prevent breast cancer recurrences, reported additional updates on its cash burn rate and financing strategy.

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The Company’s ATM financing vehicle allows the Company to sell its common stock directly into the trading market at market price. The amount raised through our ATM for 2025 exceeded the Company’s 2025 cash burn rate of approximately $9.5 million, leading to a year end cash balance of approximately $6 million as of December 31, 2025. Furthermore, the Company more than doubled its cash balance as of the close of business on January 23, 2026, to approximately $12.5 million, having raised approximately $7 million in the first three weeks of January 2026 through the ATM. The above preliminary financial figures are unaudited and are subject to change following completion of the Company’s financial audit for 2025.

CEO Snehal Patel commented, "Our financing strategy in January 2026 has been quite impressive so far without daily or constant use of the ATM. The current cash balance of $12.5 million could exceed the Company’s cash needs for all of 2026, given the $9.5 million annual burn rate in 2025 and the modest increase in cash needs over the $7 million annual burn rates in 2024 and 2023. We believe the Company’s lean structure and ongoing cost saving initiatives have been instrumental in this strategy, including the increasing number of patients entering the less expensive booster phase of Flamingo-01, due to less frequent site visits and vaccinations, and fewer more expensive site start-up costs."

Mr. Patel further added, "While our cash burn rates in 2026 and 2027 are projected to increase, the expected ongoing use of the ATM to sustain or grow the current cash balance may reduce the likelihood of the Company doing a large near term financing in 2026 or 2027, though there can be no assurance of this. Since the follow-on offering in 2020, we primarily utilized the ATM with initially Jefferies and more recently H.C. Wainwright to fund the Company. Continued use of the ATM may provide a bridge to non-dilutive funding, such as strategic/licensing partnerships or debt/royalty financing vehicles, that would further fund FLAMINGO-01 and potential commercial launch activities."

About FLAMINGO-01 Open Label Phase III Data

More than 1,000 patients have been screened with a current screen rate of approximately 600 patients per year. The 250 patient non-HLA-A*02 arm is now fully enrolled, where all patients received GLSI-100, which is 5 times more treated patients and recurrence rate data than the approximately 50 patients treated in the Phase IIb trial. The Primary Immunization Series (PIS), which includes the first 6 GLSI-100 injections over the first 6 months and is required to reach peak protection, is followed by 5 booster injections given every 6 months to prolong the immune response, thereby providing longer-term protection.

In the non-HLA-A*02 arm, a preliminary analysis of recurrence rates after the PIS is completed shows an approximately 80% reduction in recurrence rate.

This observation is trending similarly to the Phase IIb trial results and hazard ratio where HLA-A*02 patients were treated and where breast cancer recurrences were reduced up to 80% compared to a 20-50% reduction in recurrence rate by other approved products.

The immune response at baseline prior to any GLSI-100 treatment, the increasing immune response during the PIS, and the safety profile of non-HLA-A*02 patients is trending similarly to the HLA-A*02 arms of FLAMINGO-01 and to the Phase IIb study.

Analysis of the open label data from FLAMINGO-01 has been conducted in a manner that maintains the study blind. The open label recurrence rate, immune response, and safety data is based on the patients enrolled to date in FLAMINGO-01 and the data provided by the clinical sites so far, which is not completed or fully reviewed, and is thus preliminary. While comparing any preliminary FLAMINGO-01 data to the Phase IIb clinical trial data may be possible, these preliminary results are not a prediction of future results, and the results at the end of the study may differ.

About GLSI-100 Phase IIb Study

In the prospective, randomized, single-blinded, placebo-controlled, multi-center (16 sites led by MD Anderson Cancer Center) Phase IIb clinical trial of HLA-A*02 breast cancer patients, 46 HER2/neu 3+ over-expressor patients were treated with GLSI-100, and 50 placebo patients were treated with GM-CSF alone. After 5 years of follow-up, there was an 80% or greater reduction in cancer recurrences in the HER2/neu 3+ patients who were treated with GLSI-100, followed, and remained disease free over the first 6 months, which we believe is the time required to reach peak immunity and thus maximum efficacy and protection. The Phase IIb results can be summarized as follows:

80% or greater reduction in metastatic breast cancer recurrence rate over 5 years of follow-up with a peak immune response at 6 months and well-tolerated safety profile.

The PIS elicited a potent immune response as measured by local skin tests and immunological assays.

About FLAMINGO-01 and GLSI-100

FLAMINGO-01 (NCT05232916) is a Phase III clinical trial designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Fast Track designated GLSI-100 (GP2 + GM-CSF) in HER2 positive breast cancer patients who had residual disease or high-risk pathologic complete response at surgery and who have completed both neoadjuvant and postoperative adjuvant trastuzumab based treatment. The trial is led by Baylor College of Medicine and currently includes US and European clinical sites from university-based hospitals and academic and cooperative networks with plans to open up to 150 sites globally. In the double-blinded arms of the Phase III trial, approximately 500 HLA-A*02 patients are planned to be randomized to GLSI-100 or placebo, and up to 250 patients of other HLA types are planned to be treated with GLSI-100 in a third arm. The trial has been designed to detect a hazard ratio of 0.3 in invasive breast cancer-free survival, where 28 events will be required. An interim analysis for superiority and futility will be conducted when at least half of those events, 14, have occurred. This sample size provides 80% power if the annual rate of events in placebo-treated subjects is 2.4% or greater.

For more information on FLAMINGO-01, please visit the Company’s website here and clinicaltrials.gov here. Contact information and an interactive map of the majority of participating clinical sites can be viewed under the "Contacts and Locations" section. Please note that the interactive map is not viewable on mobile screens. Related questions and participation interest can be emailed to: [email protected]

About Breast Cancer and HER2/neu Positivity

One in eight U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer over her lifetime, with approximately 300,000 new breast cancer patients and 4 million breast cancer survivors. HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) protein is a cell surface receptor protein that is expressed in a variety of common cancers, including in 75% of breast cancers at low (1+), intermediate (2+), and high (3+ or over-expressor) levels.

(Press release, Greenwich LifeSciences, JAN 27, 2026, View Source [SID1234662290])

Delcath Systems to Participate at the BTIG 13th Annual MedTech, Digital Health, Life Science & Diagnostic Tools Conference

On January 27, 2026 Delcath Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: DCTH), an interventional oncology company focused on the treatment of primary and metastatic cancers of the liver, reported that management will be attending the BTIG 13th Annual MedTech, Digital Health, Life Science & Diagnostic Tools Conference at the Cliff Lodge in Snowbird, Utah.

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(Press release, Delcath Systems, JAN 27, 2026, View Source [SID1234662289])