CART-T CELL THERAPY (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Science and tech)

Context: Indigenous CAR-T cell therapy now available for commercial use: ‘first’ patient declared free of cancer.

CART- T cell therapy

• About: - Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a kind of cancer treatment that uses cells from your own immune system.
• Procedure: Doctors take a type of white blood cell from the patient’s body and genetically change the cells in a lab so they can better find your cancer. Then millions of these target-seeking cells are put back into patient body
• Significance:

oCAR T-cell therapies are even more specific.

oIt directly stimulate the patient's immune system to fight cancer, leading to greater clinical efficacy.

oAlso called as "living drugs.“

• Challenges:

oCAR T-cell therapy may not be cost-effective as it will still be unaffordable for most people.

oDifficulty of preparing CAR T-cell therapies has been a major hindrance to their widespread use.