CAR-T therapies—genetically engineered T cells that destroy cancer cells—have proven to be promising options when other treatments fail. However, there’s currently no one-size-fits-all CAR T, and each patient needs his own bespoke intervention.
Now, researchers report that natural killer cells, grown from human induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells and modified in a similar way to CAR-T cells, are effective against ovarian cancer in a mouse model. The result paves the way for developing an “off the shelf” immunotherapy that doesn’t need to be personalized for each patient, the authors report in a study published last week (June 18) in Cell Stem Cell.
For Lewis Lanier, leader of the University of California, San Francisco’s cancer immunology program who was not involved in the study, the findings serve as a proof of concept, “that you can take the IPS cell and actually get a product out of it,” he says.
Natural killer ...
