Creating CAR T therapies that don’t cause cancer

The revelation that CAR T cell therapies designed to cure cancers can give rise to new malignancies jolted the industry and raised concerns about the breakthrough modality’s ability to expand into new indications, but alternative CAR T technologies that avoid or reduce the risk are already in development.

With the understanding that the risk of secondary malignancy is real and not just theoretical, safety switches are back. Non-viral gene insertion technologies may also have a moment to shine...