CAR T-cell therapy (CAR-T) has emerged as a therapeutic option with the ability to infiltrate and modulate the tumor microenvironment and control tumor growth. While normal T-cells with effector features have difficulty infiltrating the complex tumor microenvironment, ex vivo reprogramming of a patient’s own T-cells with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) enables the targeting of specific tumor antigens and the appropriate direction of immune responses. Given the reprogramming of a patient’s T-cells, CAR-T cells are advantageous in that they have unique specificity and can control cancer cells that selectively interact with the specific antigen receptor. This ability to target tumors with higher specificity can expedite tumor cell death and eradicate cancer more effectively with longer durations of response.
This article was originally published in The Pharma Letter.