Despite the remarkable clinical efficacy of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells in hematological malignancies, only a subset of patients achieve a durable complete response. Furthermore, significant obstacles to CAR T cell therapy remain to treat solid tumors. Complex immunosuppressive tumor microenvironments (TME) and the exploitation of checkpoint pathways allow tumors to evade the immune system. We have developed novel methods to create CAR T cells enriched with T cells of memory phenotypes that have improved metabolic fitness for both hematological and solid tumors.

Learning Objectives:

1. Explain the challenges currently facing CAR T cell therapy.

2. Identify how CAR T cell can be engineered to address these challenges.

3. Describe how CAR T cells can be modified to overcome immune checkpoints in the tumor microenvironment.