Agenus will present long-term survival data for its BOT+BAL combination and translational research on agenT-797 in colorectal cancer at SITC 2026, the company has announced ahead of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer's annual meeting.

The announcement, carried by marketscreener.com, names two program strands. The first is extended survival follow-up for BOT+BAL — Agenus's shorthand for botensilimab, an Fc-enhanced anti-CTLA-4 antibody, paired with balstilimab, a PD-1 inhibitor. The second is translational work on agenT-797, an investigational cell therapy, in colorectal cancer patients.

For R&D portfolio managers tracking checkpoint inhibitor combinations in microsatellite-stable colorectal cancer — a population where anti-PD-1 monotherapy has repeatedly failed — the long-term survival dataset is the headline item. Previous presentations of botensilimab plus balstilimab data at earlier oncology meetings drew attention for reported responses in patients with MSS metastatic disease, a segment with few immunotherapy options. SITC 2026 will show whether those early signals hold up with additional follow-up time.

What the announcement does not yet include matters as much as what it does. Agenus has not disclosed, in the notice itself, the number of patients in the long-term survival analysis, the median follow-up duration, the specific survival endpoints to be reported, or whether the data come from a randomized trial or single-arm studies. Attendees and analysts will need to weigh those parameters when the abstracts and presentations appear. The distinction between measured overall survival figures and progression-free survival or landmark analyses will determine how decision-ready the dataset is.

The agenT-797 translational research adds a second layer. Agenus has positioned agenT-797 in its cell therapy pipeline; translational findings in colorectal cancer could indicate which patients respond, why, and what biomarkers might guide future trial design. Translational posters of this kind rarely change practice on their own, but they inform go/no-go and patient-stratification decisions for subsequent development.

Agenus, based in Lexington, Massachusetts, has bet heavily on its immunomodulatory pipeline. Botensilimab's Fc engineering — designed to enhance antigen presentation and deplete regulatory T cells — is the mechanistic differentiator the company has emphasized against first-generation CTLA-4 blockade. The combination with balstilimab is its most advanced clinical pairing in gastrointestinal cancers.

For competitive context, the colorectal cancer immunotherapy field remains crowded with failed attempts to unlock responsiveness in MSS tumors, from checkpoint combinations to bispecifics and cellular approaches. Any sponsor claiming durable survival in this setting invites scrutiny of patient selection, prior-therapy lines, and sample size — questions SITC reviewers and attendees will bring.

SITC 2026, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer's annual meeting, serves as the venue for the presentations. The company has not specified in the notice the presentation formats — oral, spotlight, or poster — nor the exact session dates. Those details, along with full datasets, will follow in the meeting's published abstracts.

Agenus says the presentations will cover both the BOT+BAL long-term survival data and the agenT-797 translational research, giving oncology R&D watchers a concrete checkpoint on the program at SITC 2026.