On October 22, 2025 Accent Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering a new class of small molecule precision cancer therapies, reported new preclinical data on its two lead programs: the novel KIF18A inhibitor, ATX-295, and the first-in-class DHX9 inhibitor, ATX-559. The company will share the data, which highlight the potential to target key tumor vulnerabilities for selective cancer cell death, at the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper)-NCI-EORTC AACR-NCI-EORTC (Free AACR-NCI-EORTC Whitepaper) International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics (EORTC-NCI-AACR) (Free ASGCT Whitepaper) (Free EORTC-NCI-AACR Whitepaper) (the "Triple Meeting"), being held October 22-26, 2025, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
"The data presented for our KIF18A and DHX9 programs continue to validate the success of our biomarker-driven strategy against challenging, genetically diverse cancers," said Serena Silver, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Accent Therapeutics. "By precisely targeting the vulnerabilities created by genomic instability, we are excited about the potential of ATX-295 and ATX-559 to address significant unmet needs for patients."
In the presentation entitled "Addressing Novel Oncology Targets for Tumors with Genomic Instability," (Concurrent Session 9, October 25th at 4:45 PM ET) Dr. Silver will discuss the promise of ATX-295 and ATX-559 as precision cancer therapeutics that exploit the genomic instability of cancer cells to effect cancer-selective growth inhibition in vitro and in vivo. She will highlight the potential for KIF18A inhibition by ATX-295 in cancers with high levels of chromosomal instability (CIN) such as ovarian and triple negative breast cancer, and for DHX9 inhibition by ATX-559 in multiple tumor types with high levels of replication stress including dMMR/MSI-H and BRCA alterations.
Additional Poster Presentations
ATX-295 (KIF18A Inhibitor)
Title: Activity of the Novel KIF18A Inhibitor, ATX-295, is Enriched in Whole Genome Doubled Ovarian and TNBC Preclinical Models
Summary: Inhibition of KIF18A by ATX-295 is a compelling strategy for chromosomally unstable cancers, supported by new data identifying whole genome doubling (WGD) as a strong predictive biomarker for tumors such as ovarian cancer and TNBC. This biomarker-driven approach was validated in preclinical models where ATX-295 induced dose-dependent tumor regression in WGD-positive models.
Session Details: October 24th, Session B, 12:30-4:00 PM ET
ATX-559 (DHX9 Inhibitor)
Title: ATX-559, a First-in-Class, Clinical-Stage DHX9 Inhibitor, as a Targeted Therapeutic for Molecularly Defined Tumors with Genomic Instability and Replicative Stress
Summary: Preclinical data show the first-in-class oral DHX9 inhibitor, ATX-559, increases replicative stress and DNA damage, leading to selective cell death in cancers with genomic instability. This activity led to robust, dose-dependent tumor regression in preclinical models with BRCA alterations and microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H).
Session Details: October 24th, Session B, 12:30-4:00 PM ET
About ATX-295
ATX-295 is a potential best-in-class inhibitor for KIF18A, a mitotic kinesin motor protein essential for cell division in select tumors with chromosomal instability. A subset of tumors with an abnormal number of chromosomes (aneuploid), such as those found in ovarian and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), are reliant on KIF18A. Treatment with a KIF18A inhibitor leads to rapid cell death in these chromosomally unstable cancer cells while leaving healthy cells with normal numbers of chromosomes unaffected. Accent retains full worldwide rights to the KIF18A program, including ATX-295, which is being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial (NCT06799065).
About ATX-559
ATX-559 is a first-in-class potent and selective inhibitor of DHX9, a DNA/RNA helicase that plays a critical role in tumors with high levels of replication stress. Such tumors include those with BRCA loss of function (breast, ovarian), mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) or microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) cancers (colorectal, endometrial, gastric), and others representing large patient populations with significant unmet medical need. DHX9 is a compelling oncology target as its inhibition exploits key tumor vulnerabilities related to replication, transcription, and the maintenance of genomic stability, resulting in cancer-specific cell death. Accent retains full worldwide rights to ATX-559, currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial (NCT06625515), and the DHX9 program.
(Press release, Accent Therapeutics, OCT 22, 2025, View Source [SID1234656906])