CAR-T- A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON IMMUNOTHERAPY

Abstract

T lymphocytes expressing a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) are perhaps the biggest and most important advance in cancer therapy we have seen in the last few decades. It is a technological breakthrough combining cell-targeted gene therapies. CAR-T technology is based on the modification of T lymphocytes receptors which will fight cancer cells after reinfusion into the patient's body. What's more, they are able to survive in the body and exert this effect for a long period of time. One could say that this is an ideal model for the concept of precision or individualized (personalized) medicine. The rapid development of CAR-T therapy led to the approval of the first CAR-T drugs: tisagenlecleucel (trade name: Kymriah,) and axicabtagen-cyleucel (trade name: Yescarta) by both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and later by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of refractory B-cell lymphoma in adults and refractory/relapsed B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) in children and young adults. Trials are being undertaken to use this therapy in solid tumors. This is an opportunity for those patients in whom all previous treatments have been exhausted. This article presents the current state of knowledge and key research directions and clinical application of this new therapy. Despite the fact that enormous efforts are still to be made, the implementation of CAR T- cells into the clinical oncologist's daily routine practice was never as plausible as it is today.