Two FDA-approved CAR T immunotherapies, Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) and Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel), for cancers of the blood have ushered in a new era in the development of gene and cell therapies.  The engineered CARs are designed to recognize CD19 antigen on the blood tumor cells, which allows the CAR-expressing T cell to target them for destruction. Previous clinical trials testing these agents showed striking effects in patients, leading to high rates of remission and, in many cases, complete recovery.

Efforts are now underway to exploit CAR T and related adoptive cell immunotherapy technology (ACT) to treat solid tumors—tumors which have so far proven largely resistant to treatment with these agents. Our immune system detects and destroys abnormal cells, including tumors.

Patients whose tumors harbor tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) often fare better than those whose tumors do not. However, most patients lack a significant tumor-reactive immune infiltrate, and the tumor environment itself can be inherently immunosuppressive.

Moreover, identification of tumor-specific antigens that can be safely and selectively targeted has been a challenge.

In this webinar, Prasad Adusumilli, Stephen Gottschalk, and Leonid Metelitsa discuss the challenges of targeting CAR T and related ACT platforms to the solid tumor environment, and they provide examples of how combining gene and cell therapy with checkpoint inhibition and other strategies may enable us to disrupt the tumor environment and its dynamic response to such therapies.   

To learn more about information-rich solutions for CAR-T research from Sartorius, visit
www.sartorius.com/car-t-research.
 

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