prostate-cancer
(15)
K36 Therapeutics, Inc.
K36 Therapeutics is a Cambridge, Massachusetts clinical-stage biotech developing first-in-class oral small-molecule inhibitors of NSD2/MMSET, an epigenetic enzyme that drives hard-to-treat cancers. Its lead candidate, gintemetostat (KTX-1001), is in Phase 1 for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma carrying the t(4;14) translocation, and a second program, KTX-2001, targets metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Backed by Atlas Venture, F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, Nextech Invest and Bristol Myers Squibb, K36 has raised roughly $100M+ to translate chromatin biology into precision cancer medicines.
SpotitEarly
SpotitEarly is a healthtech company building an accessible, non-invasive early cancer detection service that combines trained scent-detection beagles with an AI platform to analyze volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in a person's breath. Users collect a breath sample at home and mail it to the company's lab, where beagles screen for cancer-linked odors and SpotitEarly's proprietary LUCID bio-AI platform digitizes and interprets the dogs' behavioral signals. A double-blind clinical study of 1,400 people, published in Nature's Scientific Reports, reported 94% sensitivity and specificity across the four most common cancers - breast, colorectal, lung, and prostate. Founded in Israel and now launching in the U.S., the company aims to make routine multi-cancer pre-screening affordable, at roughly $250 for a single test.
Zetagen Therapeutics
Zetagen Therapeutics is a private, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in Syracuse, New York, developing locally-administered therapies for metastatic and primary cancers that spread to bone. Its lead candidate, ZetaMet (Zeta-BC-003), uses a patented molecular pathway delivered by a single outpatient injection to suspend cancer growth, inhibit pain, and regenerate bone in patients with metastatic breast cancer lytic lesions. Spun out of research at SUNY Upstate Medical University in 2015, the company has earned multiple FDA Breakthrough Designations and reported Phase 2a data showing an 87.9% mean reduction in lesion defect volume.
FibroGen, Inc.
FibroGen, Inc. is a San Francisco biopharmaceutical company that spent three decades building first-in-class medicines around hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) biology. Its best-known drug, roxadustat, is an oral treatment for anemia approved in China, Japan and Europe. After selling its China business to AstraZeneca in 2025 and paying down debt, the company rebranded as Kyntra Bio (Nasdaq: KYNB) in January 2026 to concentrate on oncology and rare disease, led by FG-3246, a first-in-class CD46-targeting antibody-drug conjugate for metastatic prostate cancer.
Terrence Connolly
Terrence (Terry) Connolly is a chemist-turned-dealmaker who runs K36 Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts biotech chasing a single target: NSD2/MMSET, an epigenetic switch that drives hard-to-treat cancers. A Ph.D. organic chemist who started at the lab bench making molecules at Roche, Wyeth and Celgene, he crossed over into business development at Celgene, closed more than two dozen deals, then ran the business side at Skyhawk and Dragonfly. In 2021 he took the top job at K36, and now steers its lead compounds KTX-1001 (for t(4;14) multiple myeloma) and KTX-2001 (for treatment-resistant prostate cancer) through early clinical trials, backed by a $70 million Series B led by Nextech Invest with Bristol Myers Squibb participating.
Philina Lee
Philina Lee, PhD is the Chief Executive Officer of AdvanCell, a clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical company developing targeted alpha therapies for cancer built on a proprietary Lead-212 platform. A biopharmaceutical executive with more than two decades in oncology, she was Chief Commercial Officer at Blueprint Medicines (acquired by Sanofi for roughly $9.5 billion) and earlier helped build the organization at Algeta that launched Xofigo, the first approved alpha therapy. Trained as a cell biologist at MIT, she took the AdvanCell helm on January 1, 2026 to lead the company's US expansion from a new Boston-area headquarters and advance its lead candidate 212Pb-ADVC001 for prostate cancer.
Valar Labs
Valar Labs is a Palo Alto precision-oncology company building AI tests that read the pathology slides already made during routine cancer care. Its Vesta platform applies proprietary foundation models to standard H&E-stained tissue images to predict how individual patients will respond to therapy - starting with bladder cancer, where it forecasts whether a patient is likely to benefit from BCG treatment and stratifies the risk of recurrence and progression. Founded in 2021 by Stanford AI researchers, the company has raised $26M total and earned the FDA's first Breakthrough Device Designation for an AI digital-pathology prognostic test in bladder cancer.
Convergent Therapeutics, Inc.
Convergent Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company in Cambridge, Massachusetts developing next-generation targeted radiotherapies for cancer. Its lead candidate, CONV01-α, is a PSMA-targeted monoclonal antibody linked to the alpha-emitting radioisotope actinium-225, designed to deliver tumor-killing radiation to metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer while sparing healthy tissue. The technology, pioneered in the lab of PSMA-targeting pioneer Dr. Neil Bander and licensed from Cornell University, is led by oncologist Dr. Philip Kantoff.
Numen
Numen (formerly Cleancard) is a San Francisco biotech building rapid at-home cancer screens that read like a pregnancy test. By combining synthetic biology, machine learning, and computer vision, its platform detects multiple cancer biomarkers from a single urine sample in about 30 minutes, with no lab machinery required. Founded by Rhodes Scholars Thomas Carroll and Luca Springer, the company's first screens target prostate, bladder, and ovarian cancer, with a mission to drive cancer mortality toward zero.
AdvanCell
AdvanCell is a vertically integrated, clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical company developing a pipeline of targeted alpha therapies (TAT) for cancer, powered by its proprietary Lead-212 (212Pb) alpha isotope generator technology. By solving the chronic supply bottleneck of alpha-emitting isotopes, AdvanCell aims to deliver highly potent, tumor-specific radiation that destroys cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue. Its lead asset, ADVC001, a 212Pb-PSMA therapy, is in clinical trials for metastatic prostate cancer, with a deepening pipeline targeting melanoma, ovarian, breast, and lung cancers.
Philip Kantoff
Philip Kantoff is a medical oncologist who spent three decades shaping how the world treats prostate cancer, then walked away from running medicine at one of the country's largest cancer hospitals to start a company. As co-founder and CEO of Convergent Therapeutics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he is developing CONV01-alpha, an alpha-emitting radioantibody that hunts down prostate tumor cells and irradiates them at close range. He has published more than 500 papers, been cited over 85,000 times, mentored a generation of oncology leaders, and at an age when most peers retire, raised $90 million in Series A funding to bring a new class of cancer therapy into the clinic.
ArteraAI
ArteraAI is a precision medicine company building multimodal AI tests that personalize cancer therapy. Its flagship ArteraAI Prostate Test is the first AI-enabled predictive and prognostic biomarker recommended in the NCCN Guidelines for localized prostate cancer, validated across five Phase 3 trials.
Promaxo
Promaxo builds the world's first single-sided, in-office MRI platform - a compact magnet, AI, and robotics stack that lets urologists run image-guided prostate biopsies and focal treatments in their own clinic, without a hospital scanner suite.
Prithipal Sethi
Dr. Prithipal S. Sethi is a board-certified urologist, founder and CEO of Golden State Urology, and Chief Medical Officer at Promaxo - the company pioneering in-office MRI technology for prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment. With over 25 years of clinical practice, 2,500+ enlarged prostate procedures performed, and a career rooted in bringing advanced imaging technology directly into the urologist's office, Sethi straddles the worlds of clinical medicine and medical device innovation. Trained at UC Berkeley, St. Louis University, and Medical College of Wisconsin, he built Golden State Urology from a single Stockton practice in 2004 into a multi-location Northern California institution, and now serves as a clinical voice for a technology that is reshaping how prostate cancer is caught and treated.
Andre Esteva
Andre Esteva, PhD, is the co-founder and CEO of ArteraAI, a medical AI company whose test for personalizing prostate cancer therapy is included in NCCN clinical guidelines, reimbursed by Medicare, and deployed internationally. A Stanford-trained AI scientist whose Nature cover paper first demonstrated that AI could match dermatologists at diagnosing skin cancer, Esteva has co-founded four companies with a combined market cap of $2.2B. Named to TIME100 Health 2025 and Modern Healthcare's 40 Under 40 for 2025, he leads a company that raised $175M total and was named a TIME 2024 Best Invention.