Oncology once meant cutting, burning, and poisoning. Chemotherapy destroyed cancer cells-but took healthy tissue along for the ride. Radiation worked, but at brutal cost. Surgery removed tumors, only to watch them return months later.

But now, a different war is being waged.

Instead of attacking cancer directly, immunotherapy is flipping the script entirely. Companies are racing to harness the body's natural killer cells and T cells, transforming patients' own immune systems into precision weapons against tumors. The global immuno-oncology market is projected to reach $125.68 billion in 2025, with expectations to surge to $194.64 billion by 2029.

The stakes have never been higher. For decades, cancer treatment meant choosing between survival and quality of life. Now, researchers are proving that immune-based therapies can achieve both-activating the body's defenses without the devastating side effects of traditional approaches. The market is expanding at a 13% annual growth rate, driven by increased cancer incidence and advancements in genomics and AI-driven drug discovery.

Natural killer cell therapies have attracted significant deal-making activity from major pharmaceutical companies. Sanofi, Gilead, Merck, and other industry giants have struck partnerships worth hundreds of millions in upfront payments and billions in potential milestone payments to access NK cell engager platforms.

Yet one small clinical-stage developer has cracked a code that Big Pharma paid billions to access. This company's proprietary natural killer cell engager platform addresses the same tumor targets that triggered those massive licensing deals. More on that in a moment.

First, let's examine which companies are leading this transformation.

Companies Racing to Dominate Immunotherapy

- ImmunityBio, Inc. (NASDAQ: IBRX) - The company achieved approximately $16.5 million in net revenue during Q1 2025 from its FDA-approved natural killer cell activator ANKTIVA, representing a 129% increase over Q4 2024, with March unit sales climbing 69% over February after receiving its permanent J-code.

- Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: IOVA) - Iovance recognized total revenue of $49.3 million in Q1 2025 from its Amtagvi treatment, the first FDA-approved T cell therapy for a solid tumor, with five-year clinical data showing a 31.4% objective response rate in heavily pre-treated melanoma patients.

- Kazia Therapeutics Limited (NASDAQ: KZIA) - The company reported an 86% reduction in tumor burden from a triple-negative breast cancer patient after just three weeks of combination immunotherapy treatment with paxalisib, one of the most treatment-resistant cancer types.

- Greenwich LifeSciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GLSI) - Greenwich's GLSI-100 immunotherapy received FDA Fast Track designation in September 2025 for preventing breast cancer recurrences, with Phase IIb trials demonstrating an 80% or greater reduction in metastatic breast cancer recurrence over five years across 146 patients with zero serious adverse events.

- Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc. - The private biotechnology company expanded its partnership with AbTherx in September 2025 following successful multi-target studies, gaining access to novel transgenic technologies to accelerate discovery of therapeutic antibodies across its pipeline of natural killer cell engagers.

The Market Opportunity

HER2 protein is expressed in 75% of breast cancers at varying levels, representing a massive addressable market. One in eight U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer over her lifetime, with approximately 300,000 new cases annually and 4 million survivors.

Traditional cancer treatments worked by destroying everything in their path, hoping cancer cells died before the patient did. Immunotherapy works by awakening the body's natural defenses. This isn't incremental improvement. This is transformation.

Companies developing natural killer cell activators, T cell therapies, and immune checkpoint combinations are reporting clinical data that would have seemed impossible a decade ago. Five-year response rates. Complete tumor clearance. Zero serious adverse events. Treatment-free survival intervals.

The market is growing at double-digit rates because these therapies deliver what patients and physicians have always wanted. Effective cancer treatment without destroying quality of life.

What This Means for Investors

The immunotherapy revolution isn't coming. It's already here.

While larger biotechs capture headlines with blockbuster deals and FDA approvals, that small clinical-stage developer mentioned earlier is generating clinical data comparable to therapies that commanded nine-figure upfront payments.

The company's proprietary natural killer cell engager platform addresses the same tumor targets that triggered massive licensing deals worth hundreds of millions upfront and billions in milestones.

Yet it's trading at a fraction of the valuation.

Click here to discover the micro-cap immunotherapy developer that's cracking the code Big Pharma paid billions to access.

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