Ohio State experts are among the only teams in the nation to treat cancer with CAR-T—a new immunotherapy that attacks cancer cells with fewer side effects.

The breakthrough therapy harnesses a patient’s own immune system to treat cancer in children and adults via the removal of T-cells, on which Chimeric Antigen Receptors—or CARs—are then placed.

The process works by retraining the cells to identify and attack cancer, enabling more rapid results without many of the side effects of traditional treatments.

“CAR-T teaches those T-cells how to recognize a cancer cell that sort of managed to evade someone’s own immune system,” Samantha M Jaglowski, MD says. “This is really the next phase of personalized medicine, where we’re taking a patient’s own cells and using it to make a treatment specifically for their own cancer.”

Learn more about lung cancer at http://www.YouAndLungCancer.com
This animation explains how immunotherapy works for lung cancer. Immunotherapy uses medicine to stimulate the body’s immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells. The immunotherapy drugs that are most often used to treat lung cancer are called “checkpoint inhibitors.” On the surface of cancer cells there are proteins that “put the brakes” on the immune system. They serve as “checkpoints” that stop the immune system from launching an all-out assault on cancer. Checkpoint inhibitors work by “taking off the brakes” and giving the immune system free rein to release special cells called T cells that attack the cancer. Watch to learn about checkpoint proteins called PD-1, PD-L1, CTLA-4, considerations for combining immunotherapy with chemotherapy, as well as learn about possible side effects of immunotherapy for lung cancer.
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