CAR T-Cell Therapy: A Promising New Approach for Treating Cancer
What is CAR T-Cell Therapy? A patient's own T cells are engineered to find and attack cancer in a revolutionary new treatment called CAR T-cell therapy. With this therapy, specialized T cells from a patient's blood are removed and modified in the lab. Scientists genetically modify these T cells, called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, to include a special receptor called a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR). This receptor recognizes and targets specific proteins on the surface of certain cancer cells. Once infused back into the patient, these CAR T cells can multiply in number and act as a "living drug" by finding and destroying cancer cells that have the matching target protein. How Do CAR T Cells Work? CAR T cells are a type of immunotherapy that involves taking T cells from a patient's blood and genetically modifying them to help the immune system more effectively detect and eliminate cancer cells. The T cells are collected from the patient through an a...