treatments and were out of options. So researchers tried a recently developed approach that harnesses the immune system’s cancer-killing potential: CAR T-cell therapy.
It involves removing immune system T-cells from a patient, then genetically altering them to be armed with chimeric antigen receptors, or CARs.
That allows the T-cells to recognize and attack cancer cells once they are infused back into the blood, said senior researcher Dr. James Kochenderfer.
CAR T-cell therapy is already approved for certain cases of leukemia and lymphoma — two other types of blood cancer.
But the approach is not one-size-fits-all. CARs have to target a protein specific to the