Dr Kai He speaks to ecancer about the stage 1 PRESERVE-003 phase 3 trial.

He reviews new clinical data on gotistobart, a novel CTLA-4–targeting antibody designed to selectively deplete regulatory T cells within the tumour microenvironment, in patients with advanced squamous non-small cell lung cancer who progressed after immunotherapy and chemotherapy.

The study showed that gotistobart significantly improved overall survival compared with docetaxel, while also delivering higher response rates and more durable responses.

Although median progression-free survival was similar between groups, longer-term outcomes favoured gotistobart, with a meaningful proportion of patients remaining progression-free at one year.

These results highlight the potential of a chemotherapy-free approach in a difficult-to-treat population and support further development of this novel immunotherapy strategy in lung cancer.