What is CAR T-cell therapy?
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a form of immunotherapy for certain blood cancers and is under investigation for the treatment of other malignancies as well. T-cells are an important component of a person’s immune system. In select patients, the T-cells can be utilized to fight his or her disease. First, the T-cells are collected from the patient, then they are re-engineered to recognize the cancer as foreign, and after a lower dose chemotherapy, are re-infused into the patient.
CBCI has multiple clinical trials investigating CAR T-cell therapy in patients with lymphomas, multiple myeloma, and leukemias. Several studies available at CBCI are utilizing T-cells that are ready for treatment (“off the shelf”), theoretically reducing the time to treat. Moving forward, additional investigations will include the use of other immune system cells, such as natural killer (NK) cells.