Car T Cell Therapy: A revolutionary new treatment approach for cancer
What are CAR T cells?
CAR T cell therapy is a type of immunotherapy that uses genetically engineered immune cells called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells to treat cancer. In CAR T cell therapy, a patient’s own T cells (a type of white blood cell) are collected and genetically engineered to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) on their surface. This CAR combines the specificity of an antibody with the potent killing activity of a T cell to direct the T cell to specifically attack and destroy cancer cells carrying a certain protein on their surface.
How CAR T cells are made
To produce Car T Cell Therapy, T cells are first collected from the patient’s blood through a process called leukapheresis. The T cells are then sent to a manufacturing facility where they are genetically modified using a viral or non-viral vector to introduce the gene for the CAR into the T cell genome. The CAR directs the T cell to target a specific protein on the surface of the patient’s cancer cells. Common targets include CD19, which is expressed on certain B cell leukemias and lymphomas, and BCMA, which is expressed in multiple myeloma.
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