Iovance Biotherapeutics, a Philadelphia-based commercial biotechnology company developing tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) cell therapies for cancer, will share five abstracts at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2026, the company announced on October 19, 2026. The meeting runs October 23–27, 2026, in Madrid, Spain. The lineup includes two oral presentations: new clinical data in previously untreated advanced melanoma and the company’s first congress data in two soft tissue sarcomas.
“This is our first congress presentation of TIL cell therapy in two soft tissue sarcomas with significant unmet need,” said Noah Berkowitz, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer of Iovance. “The efficacy and durability observed in this early cohort are what moved us quickly toward our ongoing SARATOGA registrational trial of lifileucel in UPS and DDLPS.”
Lifileucel is marketed as Amtagvi®, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved as a one-time treatment for previously treated advanced melanoma. Its use in the settings being presented at ESMO, including frontline melanoma, soft tissue sarcomas, and lung cancer, is investigational.
A First Look at TIL Therapy in Soft Tissue Sarcomas
The sarcoma results come from a pilot clinical trial led by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and supported by Iovance. The study tested lifileucel in patients with two previously treated soft tissue sarcomas: undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS) and dedifferentiated liposarcoma (DDLPS).
Soft tissue sarcomas are rare cancers with about 80 subtypes, according to the release. They affect an estimated 4 to 5 people per 100,000 each year in Europe and about 3.5 per 100,000 in the U.S., based on figures the company cites. Patients with advanced UPS or DDLPS who progress after standard therapy have few treatment options.
Those early results led Iovance to launch SARATOGA, a registrational Phase 2 trial of lifileucel in advanced UPS or DDLPS. The trial enrolls patients who did not respond to at least one prior line of systemic therapy. The sarcoma data will be presented as a rapid oral session on October 26.
Final Phase 2 Results in Frontline Melanoma
The second oral presentation, scheduled for October 23, covers final results from the Phase 2 IOV-COM-202 study. The study tested lifileucel combined with pembrolizumab in patients with advanced melanoma who had not received immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy.
“Our Phase 2 results in frontline, advanced melanoma show deep, durable responses with a single treatment of lifileucel added to pembrolizumab,” Dr. Berkowitz said. “These data reinforce the scientific rationale behind TILVANCE-301, our Phase 3 trial evaluating lifileucel earlier in the treatment of advanced melanoma, highlighting the opportunity this approach may offer patients who don’t achieve lasting benefit from today’s frontline treatments.”
TILVANCE-301 is a randomized, open-label Phase 3 trial comparing lifileucel plus pembrolizumab with pembrolizumab alone in patients with untreated, unresectable or metastatic melanoma.
Translational and Real-World Evidence
Three posters round out the company’s ESMO program. One looks at how tumor-reactive immune cell clones change over time in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who responded to lifileucel.
The other two compare lifileucel with other treatments for advanced melanoma that no longer responds to programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitors. One compares it with standard-of-care therapies using U.S. real-world data. The other compares it with nivolumab plus relatlimab. According to Iovance, the real-world analysis suggests lifileucel may roughly double four-year overall survival rates versus standard of care. These are indirect comparisons, not head-to-head trials.
Presentations will be posted on Iovance’s website and the ESMO Congress virtual platform after each session.
About Iovance Biotherapeutics
Iovance Biotherapeutics is headquartered in Pennsylvania, with offices and laboratories in California and Florida. Amtagvi is approved in three global markets and available at nearly 100 authorized treatment centers, according to the company. Iovance runs its own centralized, U.S.-based manufacturing. Its pipeline includes gene-edited TIL therapies, IL-12 tethered TIL therapies, and a next-generation IL-2.
