T-Cell Cancer after CAR T-Cell Therapy

The last three decades have seen dramatic advances in the use of immunotherapies to treat cancer, primarily in the form of monoclonal antibodies targeting cancer cells directly or recruiting the immune system against them. More recently, immune cells themselves are being used as anticancer treatments, led by chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, genetically modified autologous T cells that are manufactured to express a CAR gene. CAR genes are engineered to code for a transmembrane protein with an extracellular antigen recognition and intracellular T-cell–activating domains that enable CAR T cells to recognize and attack cancer cells that express its target . . .