College
College of Arts and Sciences
Mentor Information
Dr. Olukemi Akintewe
Description
CAR-T cell therapy is a personalized immunotherapy that genetically engineers a patient’s own immune T-cells in a lab to recognize and attack specific cancer cells. CAR-T cell therapy has shown remarkable success in hematologic malignancies, where antigen expression is highly uniform. The research question that was addressed is “To what extent does antigen heterogeneity and downregulation in solid tumors reduce CAR-T cell cytotoxicity compared with the more uniform antigen expression seen in hematologic malignancies?” CAR-T cell cytotoxicity is measurably reduced in solid tumors due to the tumor’s capacity to alter antigen expression and downregulate CAR proteins whereas hematologic malignancies exhibit a uniform antigen variation, allowing for effective CAR-T cell binding. A literature review of peer-reviewed articles that were selected from databases, using key words like “antigen” “car-t cell” “efficacy”. CAR-T therapy shows strong success in blood cancers but limited efficacy in solid tumors, with a 9% overall response rate due to antigen heterogeneity, poor infiltration, and immunosuppressive tumor environments. Research highlights optimized antigen targeting, combination checkpoint blockade, improved manufacturing, and engineered CAR designs as promising strategies to enhance solid-tumor effectiveness. CAR-T cell therapy has been a relatively new topic in the medical field and has had a large impact on the possible treatment options for cancer patients. While CAR-T cell therapy has been found to be successful in the remission of hematologic malignancies, it has been an ongoing battle to increase CAR-T efficacy in solid tumors.
Comparative Analysis of CAR-T Cell Therapy Across Cancer Subtypes: Influence of Antigen Binding Properties on Efficacy and Safety
CAR-T cell therapy is a personalized immunotherapy that genetically engineers a patient’s own immune T-cells in a lab to recognize and attack specific cancer cells. CAR-T cell therapy has shown remarkable success in hematologic malignancies, where antigen expression is highly uniform. The research question that was addressed is “To what extent does antigen heterogeneity and downregulation in solid tumors reduce CAR-T cell cytotoxicity compared with the more uniform antigen expression seen in hematologic malignancies?” CAR-T cell cytotoxicity is measurably reduced in solid tumors due to the tumor’s capacity to alter antigen expression and downregulate CAR proteins whereas hematologic malignancies exhibit a uniform antigen variation, allowing for effective CAR-T cell binding. A literature review of peer-reviewed articles that were selected from databases, using key words like “antigen” “car-t cell” “efficacy”. CAR-T therapy shows strong success in blood cancers but limited efficacy in solid tumors, with a 9% overall response rate due to antigen heterogeneity, poor infiltration, and immunosuppressive tumor environments. Research highlights optimized antigen targeting, combination checkpoint blockade, improved manufacturing, and engineered CAR designs as promising strategies to enhance solid-tumor effectiveness. CAR-T cell therapy has been a relatively new topic in the medical field and has had a large impact on the possible treatment options for cancer patients. While CAR-T cell therapy has been found to be successful in the remission of hematologic malignancies, it has been an ongoing battle to increase CAR-T efficacy in solid tumors.
