Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have, for the first time, shown that CAR-T cell therapy can meaningfully affect ovarian cancer in a preclinical setting. The findings appear in Cancer Immunotherapy, marking a significant step in the pursuit of new options for a cancer that remains a leading cause of death among women worldwide.
CAR-T cell therapy works by reprogramming a patient’s own T cells to recognize and attack cancer cells. T cells are drawn from the blood, modified in the lab with new genetic information, and then infused back into the patient. While this approach has achieved remarkable success against blood cancers, its application to solid tumors like ovarian cancer has faced hurdles. Tumor environments often hinder T cell activity, diminishing the treatment’s effectiveness in many cases.
In ovarian tumors, many cells carry mesothelin, a protein that can serve as a target for engineered CAR molecules. The researchers tested three distinct CAR constructs designed to recognize mesothelin and trigger tumor cell destruction. In a mouse model of ovarian cancer, all three treatments slowed disease progression and extended survival, with one approach showing particularly strong results. Some mice experienced long-lasting responses, and signs of cancer did not reappear for several months after therapy.
Though these results come from animal studies, they provide a proof of concept that mesothelin-targeted CAR-T strategies could be developed for ovarian cancer. The work lays groundwork for future clinical testing and could eventually broaden the range of patients who benefit from cellular immunotherapies in this challenging disease context.
Overall, the study highlights a potential path toward new clinical trials, offering hope for improving outcomes for people facing ovarian cancer and pushing the boundaries of how CAR-T therapies can be applied beyond hematologic malignancies.