CAR-T treatment for cancer: prospects and challenges

Ran Chen; Lei Chen; Chaoqun Wang; Hua Zhu; Lijuan Gu; Yuntao Li; Xiaoxing Xiong; Gang Chen; Zhihong Jian

doi:10.3389/fonc.2023.1288383

CAR-T treatment for cancer: prospects and challenges

Front Oncol. 2023 Dec 5:13:1288383. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1288383. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Ran Chen^#¹, Lei Chen^#², Chaoqun Wang¹, Hua Zhu¹, Lijuan Gu³, Yuntao Li¹, Xiaoxing Xiong¹, Gang Chen¹, Zhihong Jian¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurosurgery, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
² Cancer Center, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
³ Central Laboratory, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) cell therapy has been widely used in hematological malignancies and has achieved remarkable results, but its long-term efficacy in solid tumors is greatly limited by factors such as the tumor microenvironment (TME). In this paper, we discuss the latest research and future views on CAR-T cell cancer immunotherapy, compare the different characteristics of traditional immunotherapy and CAR-T cell therapy, introduce the latest progress in CAR-T cell immunotherapy, and analyze the obstacles that hinder the efficacy of CAR-T cell therapy, including immunosuppressive factors, metabolic energy deficiency, and physical barriers. We then further discuss the latest therapeutic strategies to overcome these barriers, as well as management decisions regarding the possible safety issues of CAR-T cell therapy, to facilitate solutions to the limited use of CAR-T immunotherapy.

Keywords: CAR-T; cancer immunotherapy; immune checkpoint; immunosuppressive environment; tumor microenvironment.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(2042022kf1216) to XX.