Researchers at City of Hope National Medical Center have innovated a CAR-T cell therapy aimed at ovarian cancer, a malignant tumor of the female reproductive system that still records some of the lowest survival rates. The findings were published in Nature Communications and highlight a potential new avenue for solid tumor treatment.
CAR-T cell therapy starts with a patient’s own immune T cells, white blood cells that patrol the body for cancer and other threats. These cells are collected from the bloodstream and reprogrammed in the lab to recognize a specific protein found on cancer cells. Once trained, the modified T cells are infused back into the patient to target and destroy tumor cells. While this approach has dramatically improved outcomes for certain blood cancers, its effectiveness against solid tumors has lagged, largely due to the complex tumor environment and the challenge of infiltrating solid masses.
In the current study, researchers adapted the CAR-T strategy to address advanced ovarian cancer. The therapy is being evaluated in Phase I trials that enroll patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer who have already received platinum-based chemotherapy. The researchers selected the TAG72 protein, which sits on the surface of ovarian cancer cells, as the target for the engineered T cells.
For the investigators, TAG72 offers a promising dual role. Not only is it present on ovarian cancer cells, but it also appears on certain other cancer types, including pancreatic, colorectal, breast, and brain tumors. If early ovarian cancer trials prove successful, this targeting approach could be tested in patients with those additional cancers as well, potentially broadening the impact of CAR-T therapy for solid tumors across multiple organ systems.
Ongoing work will focus on safety, dosing, and the optimal design of CAR-T cells to overcome barriers posed by solid tumors. The team emphasizes cautious progression through clinical phases to ensure patients receive therapies with clear benefit while monitoring potential side effects and long-term outcomes. The evolving research underscores the broader effort to expand immunotherapy beyond blood cancers and into the realm of solid malignancies, where novel strategies are desperately needed.