Creating Safer CAR T-cell Therapy

Who knew CAR T-cell therapy can possibly initiate cancer all over again?

T-cells float within the bloodstream of every human. Without them, we can be instantly killed by the tiniest speck of dust flying in the air.

T-cells protect us from the external environment that we think is safe. The air we breathe is filled with more than 1,800 types of bacteria. That is 1,800 too much.

Unfortunately, the most elite researchers around the globe are still not able to pinpoint the factors that lead to the development of tumors. But as a starting point for discovery, it is safe to assume that many changes within our bodies are made due to the our deceptive, somewhat hostile environment.

In most conventional hospitals of the United States, chemotherapy is a cancer survivor’s only hope. In cancers such as colon and rectal cancer, treatment plans involving chemotherapy are only 1.8% and 5.4% effective.

But I like to believe there is always hope. There exists a treatment for blood cancers called CAR T-cell therapy.

Before I dive deeper into its specifics, here is a brief timeline of the contributing events that had eventually led to the birth of CAR T-cell therapy:

1961 — The origin of T-cells is discovered to be the thymus gland by immunologist Jacques Miller of the University of London.

1973 — Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center scientists…