Dr. Weiss on Enhancing Tumor Control With JNJ-1900

Jared Weiss, MD, of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, joined Lung Cancers Today to share insights and updates on Study 1100, a phase I trial exploring the use of a novel radioenhancer, JNJ-1900 (NBTXR3), in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors for the treatment of metastatic lung lesions.

Dr. Weiss spoke about the results from the study, which were presented during a poster display session at the European Lung Cancer Congress (ELCC) 2025. He explained that the findings indicate the use of NBTXR3 and stereotactic body radiotherapy, followed by nivolumab or pembrolizumab “seems to be an active strategy,” noting the study’s promising results in both feasibility and safety.

“Perhaps the most important finding here was that it was very feasible to do the injections,” he explained. “Next, when you look at the complications from the injection and the product, they were limited. There were only a few high-grade events in the whole study [and] just a handful that were related at all. So, combining all of this, there was about a 10% high-grade toxicity with no clear pattern of concern to it.”

The analysis included 29 patients with lung cancer, 90% of whom were male, with a median age of 64 years across the total cohort. Twenty-eight percent of patients were classified as naive to immune checkpoint inhibitors, and 72% were classified as resistant. The objective response rate (ORR) and the disease control rate (DCR) for injected and irradiated lesions were 51.9% and 100%, respectively. Across all lesions, ORR was 30.8% and DCR was 73.1%.

For the treatment of metastatic lung lesions, the trial found that NBTXR3, in combination with stereotactic body radiotherapy, “was feasible and well tolerated” when administered with immunotherapy. Dr. Weiss explained that these treatment strategies are helping move the needle toward identifying a “cure” for stage IV disease.

“Strategies like this that can potentiate immunotherapy and try to bring that for a larger proportion of patients are really exciting to me,” he said. “In general, what attracted me as an investigator was this idea that I could have a novel effective mechanism to treat that local control problem that’s causing symptoms, or in the case of oligometastatic disease.”

In reflecting on these results, Dr. Weiss explained that the phase I findings of Study 1100 indicate that future improvements in lung cancer treatment optimization are on the horizon, particularly in the realm of immunotherapy.

“It means we can do better,” he emphasized. “If I reflect back on what cancer was like when I started in this, it was really depressing. Personally, I’ve invested most of my career in immunotherapy, and I think the reason that I and others are so passionate about immunotherapy in clinic and in investigations is because we want to cure people. I’ll take any reduction in suffering I can get, I’ll take any extension of duration of life I can get, but when you cure someone, you buy them decades of quality life, not weeks or months. And what’s really exciting to me about this product is that it’s an immunotherapy potentiator in addition to that immediate relief of suffering from the local effect.”