Turn on cookies to sign in
Signing in saves your progress to your Curie account. We can only do that with cookies on — turn them on to continue.
A promising antibody-drug conjugate works across the board. Torvutatug samrotecan (torvu-sam) showed meaningful tumor responses in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer patients across all levels of folate receptor α (FRα) expression — even in those with ultralow or no receptor expression. Updated FONTANA trial data, presented at the 2026 ESMO Congress, showed overall response rates ranging from 48% to 62%, with a manageable safety profile at optimized doses.
A promising antibody-drug conjugate works across the board in tough-to-treat ovarian cancer
Torvutatug samrotecan (torvu-sam), a folate receptor α (FRα)-targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), is turning heads with updated results from the phase 1/2a FONTANA trial, presented at the 2026 ESMO Congress. The drug demonstrated meaningful antitumor activity in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (PROC) — a notoriously difficult-to-treat population — regardless of how much FRα their tumors expressed, including those with ultralow or no receptor expression at all.
The safety profile was most favorable at the 2.0 mg/kg dose, with higher rates of serious adverse events and discontinuations observed at the 2.4 mg/kg level. Common side effects included nausea, fatigue, neutropenia, anemia, and vomiting.
By the Numbers
Why it matters: These results are significant because most FRα-targeted therapies require high receptor expression to work. Torvu-sam's activity across all expression levels — including FRα-null tumors — could dramatically expand the pool of eligible patients. Three phase 3 TREVI-OC trials are now underway to confirm these findings.
