Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Immunotherapy

Abstract

Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell therapy is a definitive breakthrough in cancer treatment – it has changed the way certain cancers are managed, as a whole. By using genetically engineered T-cells to fight diseased cells, the body can fight back against cancer. These T-cells typically target different receptors that cancer cells use. Cancer has methods of getting around this. As an innovator in the first broad-spectrum immunotherapies, it is incredibly important that there are very few limitations. However, this is not the case, and only a few types of cancer are treatable through CAR T-Cell therapy. Other types could, theoretically, be treated by using different receptors. The cost-effectiveness of this expensive immunotherapy is debated, due to its drawbacks.

The first CAR T-Cell therapy was FDA-approved in 2017. Since then, six total therapies have been designed and approved. Recently, researchers have begun testing methods of overcoming the drawbacks that, unfortunately, define this therapy. Solid tumors, which are a major hurdle with most cancer treatment, typically have environments that are too dense and hostile for standard methods to treat. New developments in CAR-T therapy may have found ways to fight tumors directly and could be on the way to solving other major problems.