LEXINGTON, Ky. — The University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center has treated the first patient in the U.S. with a new immunotherapy for small cell lung cancer, offering hope for patients whose cancers have stopped responding to other treatments.
UK Markey Cancer Center is the first site in the country to open a clinical trial for ZG006 (Alveltamig), an experimental drug that works by connecting disease-fighting T cells to cancer cells, allowing the body’s immune system to attack the cancer. The first patient was treated in late October under the direction of Markey Cancer Center medical oncologist Zhonglin Hao, M.D., Ph.D.
ZG006 has a different structure than tarlatamab, another immunotherapy that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2024 to treat people with small cell lung cancer whose disease had worsened with standard chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Known as a bispecific T-cell engager, tarlatamab uses two arms to connect cancer cells to T cells. As a trispecific engager, ZG006 has three arms — two to grab cancer cells much tighter and one to grab T cells…