On September 28, 2026 Immuneering Corporation (Nasdaq: IMRX), a late-stage clinical oncology company focused on keeping cancer patients alive and helping them thrive, reported the presentation of new data at the 2026 AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) Conference on Pancreatic Cancer in San Diego, California. The findings, presented by Peter Vu, M.D., MHA, UC San Diego Health, support a potential dual mechanism of action through which atebimetinib may improve survival in pancreatic cancer by both reducing tumor volume and preserving body mass.

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"We designed atebimetinib to do several important things at the same time: to shrink tumors and to counteract the tumor-driven weight loss (known as cachexia) that harms many cancer patients, all while minimizing side effects," said Ben Zeskind, Ph.D., Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Immuneering. "We already reported that 84% of evaluable patients treated with atebimetinib + mGnP have stable or increasing weight. Now we can add that these pancreatic cancer patients in our study were twice as likely to have stable or increasing weight as those in a benchmark study, and the patients in our study with stable or increasing weight had longer overall survival than those who lost weight. We believe reduction in tumor volume, maximization of tolerability, and preservation of body mass all contributed to the compelling 17.3-month median overall survival we reported at ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) 2026 in 55 first-line pancreatic cancer patients treated with atebimetinib + mGnP in our Phase 2a study. We are excited to now be evaluating atebimetinib + mGnP in our ongoing Phase 3 MAPKeeper 301 clinical trial, which is actively enrolling first-line pancreatic cancer patients."

"Cachexia is an especially important problem in pancreatic cancer and can have a profound impact on patients’ survival and quality of life," said Peter Vu, M.D., MHA, UC San Diego Health and lead author of the poster. "In this exploratory analysis, patients who maintained their weight at three months had longer overall survival than those who lost weight, and two-thirds of patients with anorexia symptoms at baseline reported improvement while on treatment. Having enrolled a number of patients on this study, I’ve been encouraged by how well the combination has been tolerated. These findings support further study of whether atebimetinib may benefit patients beyond conventional measures of tumor response, and I’m hopeful the Phase 3 MAPKeeper 301 trial will help define its role as a new treatment option for pancreatic cancer."

The poster, entitled "Atebimetinib Reduces Tumor Volume and Preserves Body Mass: A Dual Mechanism for Extended Survival in Pancreatic Cancer," evaluated the relationship between body mass preservation, tumor volume reduction and overall survival in first-line pancreatic cancer patients treated with atebimetinib in combination with modified gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel (mGnP) in a single-arm Phase 2a study, using exploratory, post-hoc analyses with the same data cutoff date as the ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) presentation (April 24, 2026). Highlights of the data include:

Median overall survival of 17.3 months was previously reported in 55 first-line pancreatic cancer patients treated with atebimetinib + mGnP, and 84% of evaluable patients had stable or increased weight at three months. In the new analysis presented at AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) Pancreatic Cancer 2026, the proportion of patients demonstrating stable or increasing weight was approximately two-fold higher among atebimetinib + mGnP-treated patients evaluable for weight trajectory analysis (n=23) compared with patients from a published benchmark study (Fuller S, et al, JNCI, 117:8, 2025, 1729–1732, View Source). Median weight trajectory stabilized during atebimetinib treatment.
Among first-line pancreatic cancer patients treated with atebimetinib + mGnP, those with stable or increased weight at three months had significantly longer overall survival than patients who experienced weight loss at three months (HR=3.13; p=0.049). Median overall survival had not been reached in the weight-stable or weight-gain group after median follow-up of 15.2 months.
Among patients with low baseline scores of 37 or below on the FAACT-Anorexia Cachexia Subscale (ACS), 66% achieved an improvement of at least four points on this patient-reported outcome while on treatment. These improvements were observed across a range of RECIST responses.
The analysis also evaluated the relationship between tumor volume reduction and overall survival. Overall survival among patients with deeper tumor volume reductions, defined as a sum of longest diameters (SLD) reduction of at least 30%, was comparable to overall survival among patients with moderate tumor volume reductions of between 0% and 30%. Median overall survival was not reached in either group. In contrast, median overall survival was reached among patients without a measured reduction in SLD. The findings suggest that achieving tumor volume reduction may be more important to overall survival than the depth of tumor reduction and that clinically meaningful benefit may extend to patients whose tumor shrinkage does not meet the threshold for a RECIST partial response.
Following presentation, the poster will be available on the publications section of Immuneering’s website at View Source

Atebimetinib in combination with mGnP is currently being evaluated in a Phase 3 MAPKeeper 301 clinical trial in patients with first-line pancreatic cancer (NCT07562152).

(Press release, Immuneering, SEP 28, 2026, View Source [SID1234671111])