Targeting One Type of Immune Cell (Macrophage) with Another (CAR-T) Slows Cancer Growth in Preclinical Studies

Mice with lung cancer were treated with macrophage-targeting CAR T cells resulting in reduced numbers of tumor macrophages (right side), shrunken tumors, and extended survival. (Credit: Jaime Mateus-Tique, Icahn Mount Sinai).

A new approach to cancer immunotherapy that uses one type of immune cell to kill another—rather than directly attacking the cancer—provokes a robust anti-tumor immune response that shrinks ovarian, lung, and pancreatic tumors in preclinical disease models, according to researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. The findings were published October 11, 2022 in Cancer Immunology Research [https://doi.org/10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-21-1075]. The study involved a twist on a type of therapy that uses immune cells known as CAR T cells. CAR T cells in current clinical use are engineered to recognize cancer cells directly and have successfully treated several blood cancers. But there have been challenges that prevent their effective use in many solid tumors.