WCLC 2025: Bispecific antibody dose shows promising potential for extensive-stage SCLC
MD Anderson Research Highlight September 08, 2025
Pumitamig is a novel bispecific antibody targeting both the PD-L1 checkpoint and VEGF, a driver of angiogenesis, being studied in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC). Pumitamig plus chemotherapy was shown to improve outcomes for Chinese patients with SCLC, leading , and colleagues to examine its optimal dose in a global Phase II trial of patients with treatment-na?ve ES-SCLC. In 43 patients enrolled in cohort 1 ¨C receiving pumitamig plus etoposide and carboplatin chemotherapy for four cycles followed by pumitamig maintenance ¨C 22 patients received a lower dose of 20 mg/kg and 21 received a higher dose of 30 mg/kg. Among 38 evaluable patients, the unconfirmed overall response rate (ORR) was 85% and 66.7% with the low and high doses, respectively, with 89.5% of patients overall achieving early tumor shrinkage. Six patients (14%) discontinued pumitamig due to adverse events. These are the first results highlighting the therapeutic potential of a bispecific antibody targeting both checkpoint inhibition and angiogenesis in a global ES-SCLC patient population, supporting further development of pumitamig, which is currently being evaluated in Phase III trials. Heymach presented the results at the World Confernce on Lung Cancer on .
Small cell lung cancer is an especially aggressive disease with limited treatment advances in recent years. These results are encouraging because they suggest pumitamig may offer patients a more effective and targeted treatment option.