CAR T cell therapy genetically reprograms a patient’s immune cells to seek out and kill cancer. The personalized approach has revolutionized treatment, yet today’s therapies remain largely “hardwired” and unable to adapt after the rewired cells are restored to the patient’s bloodstream.
“The bottom line is that tumors adapt to CAR T therapies, leading to treatment failure and cancer relapse. To remain effective, our therapies need to adapt, too,” said co-senior author John Williams, Ph.D., director of City of Hope’s X-ray Crystallography Core. “City of Hope has created a system that allows us to reconfigure these potent cancer killers as the tumor progresses.”