Living Drug!! CAR-T cell therapy
Evolving field of treatment and research for cancer therapy
Living Drug!! CAR-T cell therapy
Evolving field of treatment and research for cancer therapy
CAR T therapy is a rapidly evolving field of treatment and research for cancer therapy. CAR T therapy is considered living therapy as live cells are given to patients in a hospital setting by a doctor with close monitoring and it has provided miraculous cure to blood cancer patients in the recent past.
As the name implies, the backbone of the CAR T cell therapy is T cells (type of immune cells in the body). These T cells are the primary mediators of immune response and eliminating the infection. For CAR T cell therapy, T cells are collected from the patient’s body and manipulated to generate the therapeutic T cells that, when put back in the patient's body, can eliminate the tumor. These T cells are engineered to display some receptor molecules(CAR) that can recognize and attach to the tumor cells. Once the CAR T cells identify the tumor cells via CAR molecule, these T cells release enzymes and chemicals that can kill the tumor cells. This therapy has provided an option for the patients where all the options were exhausted. Children and adults alike have benefitted from this therapy with prolonged survival, and cure (in some cases) has been observed. These early successes have laid the foundation for widespread research and development to provide similar treatment options to hard-to-treat or incurable cancers.
