only will put cancer in check, it may even feel like “check mate” because if the cancer ever comes back the cells will reactivate and attack again.

“It’s really an incredible new advancement in the treatment of these malignancies,” Selby said.

Asch added that there are greater potentials on the horizon for CAR-T therapy.

“Harnessing the immune system to fight cancer really has been a holy grail for oncology for many years,” he said. “It is the work of remarkable basic scientists in laboratories that has illuminated mechanisms that the immune system uses to detect and fight cancer. Investigators have taken those observations and used gene therapy techniques to turn T-cells into serial killer cells that recognize and kill thousands of tumor cells over and over again. … And as exciting as it is, we are really at the dawn of an age of new cellular immune therapies. There are multiple clinical trials that are going on looking at other blood diseases and solid tumors, investigating the role of CAR-T therapy versus transplant. Many of these clinical trials will be available here at the Stephenson Cancer Center in coming weeks.”

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