Discoveries in Cancer: How Immunotherapy Is Rewriting the Rules of Treatment

A New Era in Cancer Treatment

For decades, the dominant tools of oncology were surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy — treatments that attacked cancer by attacking the body itself. The side effects were brutal, the outcomes often uncertain. But a quiet revolution has been building in laboratories and clinical trial centres around the world, and in 2024 and 2025 it produced results that would have seemed extraordinary just ten years ago.

At the centre of this revolution is a deceptively simple idea: instead of poisoning cancer cells with toxic drugs, what if we could train the body's own immune system to find and destroy them? This is the promise of cancer immunotherapy — and the latest clinical data suggests that promise is finally being fulfilled.

ANKTIVA: The First FDA-Approved IL-15 Immunotherapy

In April 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved ANKTIVA® (nogapendekin alfa inbakicept), developed by ImmunityBio, making it the first-in-class IL-15 receptor agonist approved for cancer treatment. The approval was specifically for BCG-unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) — a form of bladder cancer that had historically offered patients very few options after standard BCG therapy failed.

What makes ANKTIVA scientifically significant is its mechanism. Interleukin-15 (IL-15) is a naturally occurring cytokine that activates three of the immune system's most powerful cancer-fighting cells: natural killer (NK) cells, cytotoxic T cells, and memory T cells. By amplifying this signal, ANKTIVA essentially turns up the volume on the immune system's existing cancer surveillance capabilities — without the immunosuppression associated with chemotherapy.

The FDA subsequently designated ANKTIVA as a Breakthrough Therapy for additional indications, and by early 2026, ImmunityBio had reported 700% year-over-year revenue growth as clinical adoption expanded into lung cancer and partnerships were established in 33 countries.

Glioblastoma: Survival Data That Defied Expectations

Glioblastoma (GBM) is one of the most aggressive and lethal cancers known to medicine. The median survival after diagnosis is approximately 15 months with standard treatment, and recurrence is almost universal. For decades, no new therapy had meaningfully changed those numbers.

In January 2026, ImmunityBio published Phase II data from its QUILT-3.078 trial — a study combining ANKTIVA with PD-L1 t-haNK cell therapy (an off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell product) and bevacizumab in patients with recurrent or progressive GBM. The results were striking: among 23 enrolled patients who had already failed standard-of-care therapy, median overall survival had not yet been reached at the time of reporting. Equally significant, the treatment reversed lymphopenia — the dangerous depletion of immune cells caused by prior chemotherapy and radiation — in treated patients.

This trial is currently active and recruiting participants. Patients with recurrent glioblastoma who have exhausted standard options may be eligible to participate.

Pancreatic Cancer: An FDA RMAT Designation

Pancreatic cancer carries one of the lowest five-year survival rates of any cancer — approximately 13% — largely because it is rarely detected early and responds poorly to conventional treatment. In March 2025, the FDA granted ImmunityBio a Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation for ANKTIVA combined with CAR-NK cell therapy in patients with advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer.

The RMAT designation is reserved for therapies that show early clinical evidence of addressing a serious condition with unmet medical need. It unlocks expedited development pathways including rolling review, priority review, and accelerated approval — significantly shortening the timeline from clinical trial to patient access.

The specific focus of this programme is the reversal of lymphopenia — restoring immune function in patients whose immune systems have been depleted by standard-of-care chemotherapy. By rebuilding the immune system's capacity to fight cancer, the combination therapy aims to make subsequent treatments more effective.

Chemotherapy-Free CAR-NK Cell Therapy for Lymphoma

In February 2026, ImmunityBio launched a Phase 2 trial of a chemotherapy-free, lymphodepletion-free CAR-NK cell therapy regimen for patients with indolent (slow-growing) non-Hodgkin lymphomas. The regimen combines ANKTIVA with CD-19 t-haNK cells and rituximab — and crucially, it requires no chemotherapy conditioning before treatment.

This is a significant departure from standard CAR-T cell therapy protocols, which typically require patients to undergo intensive chemotherapy to deplete existing immune cells before the engineered cells are infused. The toxicity of this conditioning regimen is a major barrier to treatment for many patients, particularly older or frailer individuals. A chemotherapy-free approach could dramatically expand the population of patients who can safely access cell therapy.

What These Discoveries Mean for Patients

The convergence of IL-15 immunotherapy, CAR-NK cell engineering, and checkpoint inhibition represents a genuinely new paradigm in oncology. Rather than treating cancer as a foreign invader to be destroyed with blunt-force toxicity, these approaches treat it as an immune system failure — and attempt to correct that failure at its source.

For patients, the most immediate implication is access. Many of these treatments are available right now through clinical trials, including for cancers — like glioblastoma and pancreatic cancer — where standard options have been exhausted. Clinical trial participation is not a last resort; in many cases, it represents access to the most advanced treatment available anywhere in the world.

How to Find a Clinical Trial

ImmunityBio currently has active trials across multiple cancer types, including lung cancer, bladder cancer, ovarian cancer, glioblastoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and HPV-associated cancers. Each trial has specific eligibility criteria based on cancer type, stage, prior treatment history, and other factors.

To explore whether you or a loved one may qualify for an ImmunityBio clinical trial, visit their dedicated patient portal:

→ Find a Clinical Trial at ImmunityBio

The portal lists all currently recruiting studies, acceptance requirements for each trial, and contact information for the research teams. ImmunityBio also offers a Compassionate Use programme for patients who do not qualify for active trials but may still benefit from investigational therapies.

The Road Ahead

Cancer immunotherapy is not yet a cure. Not every patient responds, not every cancer type has been cracked, and the science of predicting who will benefit from which treatment remains incomplete. But the trajectory of the past three years — from the first IL-15 approval to chemotherapy-free cell therapy trials — suggests that the pace of progress is accelerating.

What was experimental five years ago is now FDA-approved. What is in Phase 2 trials today may be standard of care within a decade. For patients living with cancer now, clinical trials are the bridge between the medicine of today and the medicine of tomorrow.

If you or someone you know is navigating a cancer diagnosis, exploring clinical trial options is one of the most important steps you can take. ImmunityBio's trial finder is a practical starting point — and it may open doors that standard treatment pathways cannot.