CAR-T Cell Therapy

Using T cells to fight cancer

Chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy (CAR-T cell therapy) is a form of immunotherapy that uses T cells, a type of immune cell often referred to as the workhorses of the immune system, to fight cancer.

After taking T cells from a patient’s blood, a synthetic receptor called a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) is added to T cells in the lab, and the cells are then multiplied.

Sometimes talked about as a type of cell-based gene therapy, these new CAR-T cells are then infused back into a patient’s body to target specific antigens (the cells that stimulate an immune response) on the surface of cancer cells.

How effective is CAR-T cell therapy?

Research, including hundreds of studies and clinical trials, is being done daily across the United States to investigate CAR-T cell therapy in many types of cancer.

Baylor Scott & White Health has one of the top cancer centers for immunotherapy and is changing the way cancer is treated in Texas by leading the first in human trials involving cellular therapies and the first approved site for adult commercial CAR-T cell therapy in North Texas.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the first CAR-T cell therapy in 2017, so much research is still to be done in regards to how well the therapy works.

Current research shows that CAR-T therapy is effective for blood cancers such as lymphoma or leukemia, but little data is shown for its effectiveness in solid tumors such as lung cancer or breast cancer as solid tumor antigens are harder for CAR-T cells to identify because they are typically on healthy tissue.