{"entity":{"id":"alaunos","kind":"company","name":"Alaunos Therapeutics (formerly Ziopharm Oncology)","aka":["Alaunos Therapeutics","Ziopharm Oncology","ZIOPHARM Oncology, Inc."],"tldr":"Alaunos, previously Ziopharm Oncology, developed non-viral TCR-T cell therapies against neoantigens in solid tumours with MD Anderson, after earlier phase 3 programmes with palifosfamide and darinaparsin; it wound down its clinical work in 2023.","summary":"Ziopharm Oncology, renamed Alaunos Therapeutics in 2022 and based in Houston, ran phase 3 trials of the alkylating agent palifosfamide in soft-tissue sarcoma and small-cell lung cancer in the early 2010s that failed, then moved into cell therapy: IL-12 gene therapy for glioblastoma with Intrexon and, with MD Anderson, a library of T-cell receptors against shared neoantigens in KRAS, TP53 and EGFR delivered by non-viral Sleeping Beauty transposition (TCR-T). The company halted its TCR-T trial and cut staff in 2023 to seek strategic alternatives. It appears on OnCo as a lead sponsor of phase 3 cancer trials on ClinicalTrials.gov.","asOf":"2026-09-11","links":[{"label":"Official website","url":"https://www.alaunos.com"},{"label":"ClinicalTrials.gov: trials led by Ziopharm Oncology","url":"https://clinicaltrials.gov/search?lead=Ziopharm%20Oncology"},{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziopharm_Oncology"}],"tags":["ctgov-sponsor"],"related":[],"cancers":["sarcoma","sclc","glioblastoma"],"sections":["cell-therapy"],"technologies":["tcr-t"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["md-anderson"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"notes":[],"provenance":{"editedBy":"OnCo ingestion (ClinicalTrials.gov v2 + sponsor websites)","editedOn":"2026-09-11"},"hq":"Houston, TX","country":"US","companyType":"cell-therapy","website":"https://www.alaunos.com","stage":"public","investors":[],"funding":[]},"route":"/companies/alaunos/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"glioblastoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Glioma & glioblastoma","route":"/cancers/glioblastoma/"},{"id":"sarcoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Sarcomas (soft tissue, bone, GIST)","route":"/cancers/sarcoma/"},{"id":"sclc","kind":"cancer","name":"Small-cell lung cancer","route":"/cancers/sclc/"}],"section":[{"id":"cell-therapy","kind":"section","name":"Cell Therapy","route":"/fronts/cell-therapy/"}],"technology":[{"id":"tcr-t","kind":"technology","name":"TCR-T cell therapy","route":"/technologies/tcr-t/"}],"institution":[{"id":"md-anderson","kind":"institution","name":"MD Anderson Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/md-anderson/"}]}}