For most of modern medicine, cancer drugs have been developed the same way: by designing molecules to treat diseased cells. Chimeric Antigen Receptor T cell therapy, commonly referred to as CAR T therapy, is a revolutionary cell-based immunotherapy treatment that breaks this mold.
A patient's cells are transformed through genetic engineering and reinfused into the bloodstream, allowing the cells to identify and eliminate their targets better than they naturally can. For many patients, this translates to a long-term remission or cure.
As an early pioneer in cell therapies using dendritic macrophages to treat prostate cancer, Dr. William Haseltine now sees the immense potential for CAR T.
In his latest book, he describes how CAR T cell therapy works, the potential and possibilities of integrating mRNA technology, current uses to treat cancer and ongoing efforts that adapt this system to treat other illnesses, including heart disease, HIV/AIDS and rheumatoid arthritis.
