The future of CAR – T Cell in Hematologic Cancers

Cancer has recently been identified as the leading cause of mortality worldwide. Several conventional treatments and cytotoxic immunotherapies have been developed and made available to the market. Considering the complex behaviour of tumors and the involvement of numerous genetic and cellular factors involved in tumorigenesis and metastasis, there is a need to develop a promising immunotherapy that targets tumors’ at both the cellular and genetic levels. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has emerged as a novel therapeutic T cell engineering practice, in which T cells derived from patient blood are engineered in vitro to express artificial receptors targeted to a specific tumors antigen. These directly identify the tumor antigen without the involvement of the major histocompatibility complex. The use of this therapy in the last few years has been successful, with a reduction in remission rates of up to 80% for hematologic cancer, particularly for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and Non-Hodgkin- lymphomas, such as large B cell lymphoma.