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Muscle CARs and TcRs: turbo-charged technologies for the (T cell) masses

  • Focussed Research Review
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Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A central role for T cells in the control of cancer has been supported by both animal models and clinical observations. Accordingly, the development of potent anti-tumor T cell immunity has been a long-standing objective of immunotherapy. Emerging data from clinical trials that test T cell immune-modulatory agents and genetically engineered and re-targeted T cells have begun to realize the profound potential of T cell immunotherapy to target cancer. This review will focus on a description of recent conceptual and technological advances for the genetic engineering of T cells to enhance anti-tumor T cell immunity through the introduction of tumor-specific receptors, both Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CAR) and T cell receptors (TcR), as well as an overview of emerging data from ongoing clinical trials that highlight the potential of these approaches to effect dramatic and potent anti-tumor immunity.

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Acknowledgments

Effort for composing this manuscript was supported in part by funding from the University of Pennsylvania’s Institutional Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA), and by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania/Pennsylvania Department of Health (grant# 4100051725).

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  1. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania, 422 Curie Boulevard, 409-C Stellar-Chance Laboratories, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-4283, USA

    Michael Kalos

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Correspondence to Michael Kalos.

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This paper is a Focussed Research Review based on a presentation given at the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Association for Cancer Immunotherapy (CIMT), held in Mainz, Germany, May 25–27, 2011. It is part of a CII series of Focussed Research Reviews and meeting report.

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Kalos, M. Muscle CARs and TcRs: turbo-charged technologies for the (T cell) masses. Cancer Immunol Immunother 61, 127–135 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-011-1173-5

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