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Agenus and Noetik Present ASCO 2026 Data Linking AI Analysis of Routine Pretreatment Tumor Pathology Images to Response and Survival with BOT+BAL in MSS Metastatic CRC
Agenus and Noetik Present ASCO 2026 Data Linking AI Analysis of Routine Pretreatment Tumor Pathology Images to Response and Survival with BOT+BAL in MSS
About this update from Agenus Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Agenus Inc. (Nasdaq: AGEN), a leader in immuno-oncology innovation, today announced new retrospective data showing that Noetik’s artificial intelligence-based TARIO-2 model identified spatial tumor microenvironment patterns associated with clinical outcomes from routine pretreatment tumor pathology images in patients treated with botensilimab (BOT) plus balstilimab (BAL), Agenus’ investigational next-generation multifunctional, Fc-enhanced anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 immunotherapy combination.\n\n\nThe data will be presented on May 30, 2026, by Ryan Dalton, Ph.D., of Noetik, during a poster session at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting. The presentation, titled “Artificial intelligence foundation model as a predictor of efficacy of next-generation checkpoint inhibition with botensilimab (BOT) + balstilimab (BAL) in solid tumors using pretreatment H&E images,” evaluated whether Noetik’s TARIO-2 model could analyze standard hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) pathology images to identify spatial tumor microenvironment patterns associated with clinical outcomes following treatment with BOT+BAL.\n\n\nBOT is an Fc-enhanced anti-CTLA-4 antibody designed to broaden anti-tumor immune activity through effects on T-cell priming, antigen presentation and regulatory T cells within the tumor microenvironment. Given BOT+BAL’s differentiated mechanism and prior observations that clinical activity is not strongly associated with traditional biomarkers such as PD-L1 expression or tumor mutational burden, broader tumor microenvironment-based approaches may be important for identifying patients most likely to benefit.\n\n\nThe analysis included 113 efficacy-evaluable patients treated with BOT+BAL in the C-800-01 Phase 1b trial who had available pretreatment H&E images. Tumor cohorts included microsatellite stable (MSS) metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) without active liver metastases, ovarian cancer and sarcomas. The analysis evaluated TARIO-2’s ability to predict clinical endpoints including best overall response and overall survival.\n\n\nIn the MSS mCRC without active liver metastases cohort, TARIO-2 demonstrated statistically significant predictive performance for both best overall response and overall survival. Supportive trends were observed in the ovarian cancer and sarcoma cohorts. In the MSS mCRC with...