CAR T-Cell Therapy

CAR T-cell therapy is a cancer treatment in which a patient's own T cells, a type of immune cell, are removed from the blood and genetically engineered to carry a chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR, that lets the modified cells recognize and attack cancer cells bearing a specific target antigen. The engineered cells, grown in large numbers outside the body, are then infused back into the patient, where they act as what researchers have called a living drug, multiplying and attacking tumor cells that carry the targeted antigen. Because the receptor is engineered to bind an antigen expressed on the tumor but ideally not on healthy tissue, CAR T-cell therapy is designed to concentrate its effect on cancer cells while limiting damage to normal cells, though it remains a complex, individually manufactured treatment used mainly for certain blood cancers.