Abstract 2772: Preclinical development of a novel antibody-drug conjugate targeting “cold” tumors

The promise of immunotherapy for cancer is underscored by the recent efficacy of checkpoint inhibitors, which hinder the ability of tumors to escape attack by the immune system. Patients most likely to benefit from such therapy include those whose tumors are inflamed and who express the PD-L1 checkpoint protein. It is imperative that alternative therapies are developed for patients whose tumors do not exhibit these characteristics. Using our proprietary OGAP® system, we identified a novel membrane cancer target, OX001L. OX001L expression in certain cancers is associated with poor prognosis and reduced survival. IHC studies showed substantial prevalence of OX001L across multiple tumor types, with a majority of the OX001L positive samples scoring negative for PD-L1. In non-small cell lung cancer, OX001L expression was significantly increased in tumors lacking abundant intratumoral PD-1 positive T-cell infiltrate or PD-L1 expression compared to inflamed or PD-L1 positive tumors (p