Sophie Poznanski, PhD

Cecilia Brown

Lung Cancers Today

Sophie Poznanski, PhD, senior scientist at Avidicure, joined Lung Cancers Today at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting to share insights from her presentation of preclinical data on AVC-S-101, which is a TROP2-targeting booster for the treatment of non&ndash;small cell lung cancer and several other cancers.She explained why it was critical to evaluate the TROP2-targeting booster in this setting.&ldquo;Despite enormous potential, cancer immunotherapies still face two main limitations to being more broadly effective,&rdquo; Dr. Poznanski explained. &ldquo;One, generating a high enough number of immune cells in the tumor and two, sustaining strong tumor killing by these immune cells long term in the face of an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment.&rdquo;AVC-S-101 is an example of an &ldquo;entirely new multifunctional antibody modality termed AVC boosters, which overcome these challenges with a single antibody,&rdquo; she said.&ldquo;AVC boosters uniquely combine enhanced antibody-mediated tumor killing with strong and persistent expansion and activation of both innate and adaptive immune cells within the tumor,&rdquo; Dr. Poznanski explained.She shared an example of the activity of AVC boosters, explaining that in models of human cancers, which start with &ldquo;very few immune cells,&rdquo; AVC boosters &ldquo;generated huge numbers of immune cells in the tumor, and these immune cells did not become exhausted.&rdquo;&ldquo;In fact, instead of being suppressed by tumors, these immune cells became more and more hyperfunctional over time, as long as there was tumor remaining,&rdquo; Dr. Poznanski explained. 
&ldquo;This resulted in strong and durable tumor control superior to that of even current marketed antibodies.&rdquo;She emphasized that the &ldquo;most intriguing data we&rsquo;ve generated so far&rdquo; has been in lung cancer patient tumor samples from freshly resected tumors.&ldquo;In tumor samples of even advanced disease, AVC boosters unleashed a profound treatment response,&rdquo; Dr. Poznanski explained. &ldquo;They induced strong expansion and activation of a broad array of tumor resident immune cells, including CD8 T cells, gamma delta T cells, NK [natural killer] cells and M1 macrophages.&rdquo;This approach &ldquo;turns cold tumors hot,&rdquo; which leads to &ldquo;therapeutic efficacy in patients,&rdquo; she said.&ldquo;These results position AVC boosters as future game-changer monotherapies for cancer patients, even those with advanced disease,&rdquo; Dr. Poznanski concluded.

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TROP2-Targeting Boosters: Dr. Poznanski Shares Preclinical Data in NSCLC at ASCO 2025

An ASCO 2025 presentation focused on AVC-S-101, which is a TROP2-targeting booster for the treatment of non–small cell lung cancer and several other cancers.