CAR-T cells, the first pharmaceutical cell therapy

The success of genetically engineered adoptive cell therapies in haematological malignancy in the second decade of the 21st century has surprised both immunologists and oncologists. It challenges much of our understanding of the role of personalised medicine, the divide between cell products and pharmaceutical drugs and the limitations of the immune system to clear cancer. Furthermore, many challenges remain, the therapy is both expensive, hazardous and largely restricted to lymphoproliferative disease.