Preclinical safety, biodistribution, and tumor infiltration analysis of CAR T cell targets using in situ hybridization technology - Presented at: AACR 2019

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has proven to be highly effective in treating hematologic malignancies, and major efforts are being made to achieve similar efficacy in solid tumors. These efforts face multiple challenges, including off-tumor target expression and checkpoint inhibition of CAR T cell activity in the tumor microenvironment. CAR T cells are much more potent compared to antibody therapeutics, therefore there is a need for more stringent CAR T target safety assessment to avoid adverse events resulting from “on-target/off-tumor” activity. Furthermore, it is critical to track and monitor CAR+ T cells within the context of intact tissue and tumor to understand the mechanisms underlying off-tumor toxicity and efficacy in tumor killing.