CAR-T cell therapy

CAR-T cell therapy turns a patient's own immune cells into trained cancer hunters. T cells are the white blood cells that patrol the body and kill threats, but cancer often hides from them. CAR-T takes those soldiers out, reprograms them in the lab to recognise a specific marker on the tumour, and sends them back in — like giving your security guards a precise photo of the intruder they kept walking past.

Doctors collect a patient's T cells from the blood, then add a gene for a custom receptor called a CAR, which acts as a new pair of eyes that locks onto cancer cells. The edited T cells are grown into a large army and infused back. Inside the body they find cells carrying that marker and destroy them — and because they are living cells, they can keep multiplying and working for some time.

CAR-T is a landmark living medicine, with approvals for several blood cancers after strong trial results. It is not a fit for everything: it works best so far against certain blood cancers, the manufacturing is slow and costly, and the unleashed immune response can cause serious side effects that need expert care.