One of the most innovative treatments for pediatric cancer today is a novel form of targeted immunotherapy that was recently developed and is now increasingly being applied to pediatric cancer treatment: chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) T cell therapy. This technology harnesses the power of a patient's own immune system to directly target and kill cancer cells and has shown great promise for a variety of cancer types. In 2001, the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation began supporting the work of Dr.
Laurence Cooper and other pioneers. The Foundation's investment helped fuel the launch of the first in-human protocol using T cells to target leukemia. This groundbreaking work proved that when CAR T cells are infused back into the same patient, they can mount full-blown immune attacks on tumor cells and helped lay the foundation for the cascade of research that has followed.
Two pediatric oncology experts answered questions about CAR T Cell Therapy. Dr. Nicholas Vitanza, Attending Pediatric Neuro-Oncologist and Associate Professor, Hematology/Oncology at Seattle Children's Hospital, who is leading a clinical trial of CAR T therapy for pediatric brain tumors and Dr.
Navin Pinto, Attending Pediatric Oncologist at Children's Hospital Colorado and Professor of Pediatrics at Colorado University Anschutz School of Medicine, who is an authority on CAR T cell therapy for patients with relapsed and refractory cancer. What is CAR T cell therapy? "CAR T cells are immune cells that are creat.