Cell therapy, immunotherapy and ADCs, by the numbers

Three approaches get most of the attention in cancer research at the moment. Here is how much of the registry they actually account for, among studies starting since 1 July 2026:

• Immunotherapy: 226 studies
• CAR-T and cell therapy: 146
• Antibody-drug conjugates: 51

Against a total of 3,332 cancer studies in the same window, immunotherapy accounts for roughly 7% of records, cell therapy about 4%, and antibody-drug conjugates under 2%.

Attention and volume are not the same thing. ADCs have been among the most discussed developments in oncology for several years and remain a small share of registered studies, partly because they are harder and more expensive to make than a small molecule.

None of this says anything about whether these treatments work, for whom, or how well. Registry counts measure what is being studied, nothing more.

Counts taken from the ClinicalTrials.gov API on 7 October 2026, covering studies with a registered start date on or after 1 July 2026. Registry numbers move as records are added and updated, so treat them as a snapshot rather than a fixed figure.