When Immunotherapy Fails, the Problem Is Most Often the Tumor. Sona Has First-in-Human Data at ASCO 2026.
Dr. Carman Giacomantonio, Chief Medical Officer of Sona Nanotech, is presenting first-in-human clinical data from the Targeted Hyperthermia Therapy program at the ASCO Annual Meeting, Chicago.
Immunotherapy Fails Up To 4 in 5 Cancer Patients. The Reason Is the Tumor.
Checkpoint immunotherapy changed cancer care. In melanoma alone, median survival moved from months to years.
But the response rate across cancer types sits at around 21%. The limiting factor is not the drug. It is the tumor.
Immunogenically cold tumors suppress immune recognition. They do not present sufficient antigens. The immune system cannot mount a response because the tumor gives it nothing to target.
Sona Nanotech’s Targeted Hyperthermia Therapy (THT) is designed to change the tumor, not the drug. Controlled photothermal heating converts cold tumors to immunogenically active hot tumors, restoring the conditions immunotherapy requires to work.
80% Response Rate in Patients Who Had Failed On Immunotherapy
Sona completed a first-in-human early feasibility study of THT in 10 late-stage melanoma patients. Every patient had previously failed standard-of-care immunotherapy.
Results exceeded the study’s pre-specified endpoints across all four measured domains: safety, tolerability, study design factors, and efficacy.
80%
Overall Response Rate
60%
Complete Responses in biopsied tumors
10
Patients, all imunotherapy-resistant
15 min
Minimally invasive procedure
Peer-Reviewed and Published
Sona’s research has been independently reviewed and published in leading scientific journals.
Frontiers in Immunology | January 2025
Targeted Intra-Tumoral Hyperthermia Using Uniquely Biocompatible Gold Nanorods Induces Strong Immunogenic Cell Death in Two Immunogenically ‘Cold’ Tumor Models
Kennedy, Noftall, Dean, Roth, Clark, Rowles, Singh, Pagliaro, Giacomantonio et al. | Dalhousie University / Sona Nanotech
Journal of Nanobiotechnology (Springer Nature) | April 2026
Targeted Hyperthermia Therapy (THT) Using Gold Nanorods Remodels the Tumor Microenvironment to Sensitise Microsatellite-Stable Colorectal Cancer to Immune Checkpoint Blockade
Barry E. Kennedy, Julie L. Jordan, Geetha Subramanian, Kate N. Clark, Cheryl Dean, Nicholas P. Cheverie, Kelly J. Corscadden, Caitlin Gormley, Erin B. Noftall, Mark R. Hanes, Alexander Edgar, Jean S. Marshall & Carman A. Giacomantonio | Dalhousie University / Sona Nanotech
Lead Researcher & CMO of Sona Nanotech Attending ASCO
Dr. Carman Giacomantonio
Dr. Carman Giacomantonio is Chief Medical Officer of Sona Nanotech and a surgical oncologist at the QEII Health Sciences Centre, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is the lead author on multiple peer-reviewed publications on Targeted Hyperthermia Therapy. His clinical research focuses on overcoming immunotherapy resistance in solid tumors, with particular work in metastatic melanoma, breast, and colorectal cancer.
Next Steps: Two Combination Therapy Studies in Melanoma
The first-in-human study was a monotherapy feasibility study. Sona is now advancing two combination therapy studies, building on both the preclinical data and the clinical results presented at ASCO.
The IGNITE-THT study
Intratumoral Immunotherapy + THT to Generate Novel Immune Tumor Eradication
The IGNITE-THT study evaluates intratumoral THT combined with immunotherapy in late-stage melanoma patients, building directly on the approach validated in Sona’s first-in-human study.
The PRIME-THT study
Precision Regional Immunotherapy for Melanoma Enhanced by THT, with a view to stopping the cancer before it spreads.
The PRIME-THT study evaluates a complementary combination approach in early-stage melanoma.