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Developers experimenting with a novel cancer drug class called anti-TIGIT immunotherapies rose on Friday after Swiss pharma giant Roche Holding (OTCQX:RHHBY) reported promising early-stage trial results for its experimental liver cancer drug tiragolumab.

An abstract released ahead of the next month’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting indicated that tiragolumab, an anti-TIGIT therapy, along with the standard of care, benefitted more patients with liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as a first-line option.

The Phase 1b/2 trial MORPHEUS included patients with previously untreated unresectable, locally advanced, or metastatic HCC.

Some of the patients received only standard of care comprising Roche’s (OTCQX:RHHBY) PD-L1 inhibitor, Tecentriq (atezolizumab) and its anti–VEGF therapy Avastin (bevacizumab), while others received tiragolumab as an additional therapy.

According to a Nov. 28 data cut from 58 patients, those who received the triple regimen showed a higher confirmed overall response and median progression-free survival, some of the key measures used by investigators in assessing a cancer drug.

The treatment combo comprising Tiragolumab, atezolizumab, and bevacizumab was also linked to a lower rate of grade 3/4 treatment-related adverse events and a comparable rate of treatment discontinuations.

“These data suggest that tira + atezo + bev may be a promising novel first-line treatment option for patients with uHCC, and support further study in this setting,” the researchers wrote.

Other developers of anti-TIGIT therapies, including Arcus Biosciences (NYSE:RCUS), iTeos Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ITOS), and Compugen (NASDAQ:CGEN), are trading higher in reaction to the data readout.