Video: What Is CAR T Cell Therapy?

Every day inside the body, tiny disease-fighting immune system cells, called T cells, find and destroy invaders like bacteria, viruses and cancer cells.

They do this using something called a receptor. Like a key to a lock, T cell receptors locate and then attach to those invading cells and destroy them. 

The cancer cells are crafty. They can do things like make T cells exhausted and no longer able to fight or block T cells’ ability to bind to them. This allows cancer to grow unchecked.

That's where a type of genetically engineered cell called a CAR T cell comes in. With CAR T cell therapy, scientists insert DNA into the patient's own T cells, enabling them to sprout cancer-specific receptors. Receptors that are drawn to cancer cells. 

Cancer fighting CAR T cells then circulate through the body, bind to and kill cancer cells and multiply so even more T cells can join the fight.

At City of Hope^®, our scientists are testing a number of groundbreaking CAR T cell therapies to fight cancer.

To learn more about our program, including information about clinical trials, visit cityofhope.org/car-t.