CAR-T Cell Therapy: Revolutionizing Cancer Treatment and its Implications for Future Therapeutic Strategies: A Review

Cancer is a multifactorial disease resulting from genetic alterations, environmental factors, and disrupted cellular pathways that drive uncontrolled cell growth. Traditional treatments, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, often produce variable outcomes and are limited by toxicity and resistance. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has emerged as a transformative immunotherapy, particularly effective in relapsed or refractory hematological malignancies. This review synthesizes evidence from PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and regulatory sources (2015–2025) to assess FDA-approved CAR-T products and explore emerging CRISPR-based strategies. Approved CAR-T therapies targeting CD19 and BCMA show high overall and complete response rates, yet face challenges including cytokine release syndrome (CRS), immune effector cell–associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS), long manufacturing times, and restricted efficacy in solid tumors. CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing offers potential enhancements such as multiplex gene knockouts, universal “off-the-shelf” CAR-T cells, and logic-gated designs, while highlighting the need for rigorous quality control and regulatory compliance. Integrating CAR-T therapy with CRISPR approaches may pave the way for next-generation personalized immunotherapies, contingent upon balancing efficacy, safety, accessibility, and cost.