Interventional Oncology (INTO)
Interventional Oncology at Johnson & Johnson (INTO) is catalyzing J&J’s bold vision to eliminate cancer through intratumoral treatments by integrating our unique Innovative Medicine and MedTech expertise. INTO is an Enterprise Research and Development group focused on advancing intratumoral treatments—therapies delivered directly into tumors—to address significant unmet needs in cancer care. INTO’s research and development efforts are centered on lung cancer—where the most urgent unmet needs exist—as well as head and neck cancer and other solid tumors. The aim is to locally deliver therapies directly into tumors to overcome systemic barriers and potentially transform the standard of care.
What are intratumoral treatments?
Our investigational Intratumoral treatments are designed to deliver therapies directly into tumors to improve local effectiveness, reduce systemic exposure, and complement existing cancer treatments.
Intratumoral treatments, delivered directly into tumors, aim to:
Intratumoral treatments, delivered directly into tumors, aim to:
Minimize toxicity
Make possible a better risk-benefit proposition especially for treatment of early cancer
Increase efficacy
Provide higher concentrations of local therapy to kill the tumor and activate anti-tumor immunity
Unlock new therapies
Enable the use of immunotherapies, which cannot be delivered systemically
Our progress
While recent advancements have brought significant progress to cancer treatment, there is a need for additional treatment options that are:
With our research, we aim to discover and develop treatments that may address these needs.
- More effective and less toxic to improve the risk/benefit ratio for older and early-stage patients
- Complementary and able to enhance the current mainstays of cancer care (radiation, surgical and medical oncology)
With our research, we aim to discover and develop treatments that may address these needs.
Defining the next era of cancer care: How INTO is advancing intratumoral treatment approaches
At INTO, we’re building on the foundations of cancer care – radiation, surgical and medical oncology – to pioneer an ambitious portfolio of intratumoral treatments across two pillars:
Direct local cytotoxicity:
Therapies designed to kill tumor cells and improve local disease control
Immune-mediated toxicity:
Therapies designed to help induce local immune responses, drive tumor cell death and enhance systemically delivered immune therapies
Clinical research
INTO is conducting multiple clinical studies to evaluate intratumoral therapies and combination approaches, with trials ongoing across global research sites.
Our partnership approach
Recent advances in interventional oncology have set the stage for intratumoral drug treatment to reach its transformative potential. As part of our mission to address significant unmet clinical needs with breakthrough therapies delivered directly into tumors, we are actively establishing external collaborations.
INTO welcomes collaboration with biopharma companies, academic researchers, clinicians, and technology innovators advancing intratumoral therapies and delivery solutions. We collaborate with partners across:
INTO welcomes collaboration with biopharma companies, academic researchers, clinicians, and technology innovators advancing intratumoral therapies and delivery solutions. We collaborate with partners across:
Clinical expertise
Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Interventional Pulmonology, Interventional Radiology and Thoracic Surgery
Scientific expertise
From discovery to late-stage clinical development such as pharmaceutical and engineering sciences, biomarker research and AI/data sciences
Engineering expertise
To maximize efficacy, minimize user variability and enable scale
Partner with us
Innovative intratumoral therapies
New approaches may incorporate cytotoxic agents (ideally immunogenic cell death inducers), immunostimulatory energy or agents, radio-enhancers/sensitizers and cell therapies. We seek to expand the use of controlled release and localized depot drug delivery technologies, including small molecule, protein and RNA delivery approaches.
Integrated delivery procedure solutions
Developing, expanding and fine-tuning new technologies will empower our team and our partners to plan, deliver, monitor and confirm the success of intratumoral therapy delivery.