Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a novel form of immunotherapy that leverages the strength of a patient’s own immune system to fight myeloma.
Immune cells called T cells are extracted from the patient’s blood and modified in the laboratory to produce chimeric antigen receptors, surface-level proteins that enable the T cells to recognize and fight targeted antigenic tumor cells. The newly engineered T cells are then cultivated in a lab before infusion back into the patient’s body, where they further multiply and go to work attacking cells that possess the antigen that they were programmed to destroy.
Also in development are “off-the-shelf” CAR T-cell therapies, which are created using donor cells that are universally engineered to recognize and fight antigenic myeloma cells.
Learn more about the potential impact and limitations of CAR T-cell therapy from Weill Cornell Myeloma Center Associate Director, Dr. Adriana Rossi.