ABOVE: In the presence of bispecific antibodies that target a mutant p53 antigen, T cells (dark grey) cluster around and kill tumor cells (green) in culture.
E.H.-C. HSIUE ET AL., SCIENCE, 2021
Leveraging a patient’s own immune system to fight cancer has long been an objective of researchers and physicians. In chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, for instance, doctors extract a patient’s T cells and then introduce genetic material that trains those cells to recognize tumor antigens that they might normally overlook. Upon reintroduction into the body, the goal is for the CAR T cells to locate and kill the cancerous cells. While the strategy can be a game-changer—one trial sent 22 of 27 patients with a severe form of B cell lymphoma into full or partial remission—CAR T-cells are time consuming to produce and sometimes cause nasty side effects, not unlike traditional cancer treatments that indiscriminately harm noncancerous ...
