BOSTON, Nov. 07, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ziopharm Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZIOP), today announced that Laurence Cooper, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, will present at the Stifel 2018 Healthcare Conference in New York on Wednesday, Nov. 14, at 1:15 p.m. ET.

Ziopharm Oncology is a biotechnology company focused on the development of next-generation immunotherapies utilizing gene- and cell-based therapies to treat patients with cancer. Ziopharm is focused on the development of two platform technologies designed to deliver safe, effective, and scalable immunotherapies for the treatment of multiple cancer types: Controlled IL-12 platform for Ad-RTS-hIL-12 plus veledimex and Sleeping Beauty platform for genetically modifying T cells. Ad-RTS-hIL-12 plus veledimex, has demonstrated controlled production of IL-12 in clinical trials, leading to an infiltration of T cells to target solid tumors, including rGBM. Ad-RTS-hIL-12 plus veledimex is being evaluated as monotherapy and in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors to treat brain cancer. The Company is also advancing immunotherapies using the Sleeping Beauty platform, a non-viral approach to genetically modifying T cells with DNA plasmids to express chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) and T-cell receptors (TCR) to target specific antigens in blood cancers and neoantigens in solid tumors. Sleeping Beauty is currently in a clinical trial to generate CD19-specific T cells and supports the Company's very short T-cell manufacturing process encompassed within the technology referred to as "point-of-care". The platform is being advanced in collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center to generate CAR-expressing T cells and the National Cancer Institute to generate TCR-expressing T cells.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts, and in some cases can be identified by terms such as "may," "will," "could," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," and "believes." All such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of the Company, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the Company's ability to advance certain activities; whether chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) approaches, Ad-RTS-hIL-12, TCR and NK cell-based therapies, or any other product candidates will advance further in the preclinical research or clinical trial process and whether and when, if at all, they will receive final approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or equivalent foreign regulatory agencies and for which indications; whether chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) approaches, Ad-RTS-hIL-12, TCR and NK cell-based therapies, and the Company's other therapeutic products it develops will be successfully marketed if approved; the strength and enforceability of the Company's intellectual property rights; competition from other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies; as well as other risk factors contained in the Company's periodic and interim reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to, the risks and uncertainties set forth in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 and subsequent reports that the Company may file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to revise and disseminate forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof, or to reflect the occurrence of or non-occurrence of any events.