CAR-cell therapy in the era of solid tumor treatment: current challenges and emerging therapeutic advances

This review discusses the current status, challenges, and prospects of CAR-T, CAR-NK, and CAR-M cell therapies in treating solid tumors. It highlights the limitations of CAR-T cell therapy in solid tumors, such as difficulty of cytotoxic T cells infiltrating the tumor and the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. The review explores innovative strategies to improve CAR-T cell therapy, including optimizing CAR constructs, identifying therapeutic combinations, and utilizing alternative immune effector cells like CAR-NK and CAR-M cells. The advantages of CAR-NK and CAR-M cells over CAR-T cells are emphasized, along with a discussion of clinical outcomes for various CAR-T cell therapies targeting different tumor antigens.

Karama Makni Maalej, Maysaloun Merhi, Varghese P Inchakalody, Sarra Mestiri, Majid Alam, Cristina Maccalli, Honar Cherif, Shahab Uddin, Martin Steinhoff, Francesco M Marincola, Said Dermime