# DLL3

Source: https://nuclide.cc/targets/dll3/  
Nuclide record `dll3` (Target). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from Nuclide (nuclide.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A protein that appears on the surface of small-cell lung cancer cells, now hit by a drug that pulls T cells onto them.

## Summary

Delta-like ligand 3 is an inhibitory Notch ligand aberrantly surface-expressed in ~85% of small-cell lung cancer and neuroendocrine prostate cancer. The first DLL3 ADC (rovalpituzumab tesirine) failed; the T-cell engager tarlatamab (Imdelltra) succeeded, with a survival benefit in second-line SCLC (DeLLphi-304). Trispecifics and CAR-T follow. For radiopharmaceuticals it is a target in waiting rather than in use: no DLL3 radioligand is in the clinic, and the nearest commitment is the discovery-stage DLL3 programme Telix acquired from ImaginAb in January 2025, which carries no candidate code or isotope. A surface antigen present on most small-cell lung cancers, in a disease where a scan-then-treat pair does not yet exist, is the obvious place for one.

## Fields

- Kind: Target
- Last checked: 2026-09-04
- Tags: t-cell-engager-target
- Symbol: DLL3
- Class: surface-antigen
- Biology: Normally intracellular Golgi protein; ASCL1-driven neuroendocrine lineage exposes it on the membrane.
- Where found: Small-cell lung cancer; Neuroendocrine prostate cancer; Large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DLL3
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DLL3

## Connected records

- indications: [Neuroendocrine and small-cell prostate cancer](https://nuclide.cc/indications/prostate-nepc/), [Neuroendocrine tumours](https://nuclide.cc/indications/neuroendocrine/), [Prostate cancer](https://nuclide.cc/indications/prostate/), [Small-cell lung cancer](https://nuclide.cc/indications/sclc/)
- companies: [Abdera Therapeutics](https://nuclide.cc/companies/abdera-therapeutics/), [Telix Pharmaceuticals](https://nuclide.cc/companies/telix/)
- technologies: [Radio-antibody & radio-ADC](https://nuclide.cc/technologies/radioimmunotherapy/)
- pathways: [Lineage plasticity & neuroendocrine transformation](https://nuclide.cc/pathways/lineage-plasticity-neuroendocrine/)
- opportunities: [DLL3 imaging for small-cell lung cancer](https://nuclide.cc/opportunities/opp-dll3-imaging-sclc/)

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JSON: https://nuclide.cc/api/v1/entities/dll3.json