CAR-Based Immunotherapy of Solid Tumours—A Survey of the Emerging Targets

SIMPLE SUMMARY: A rapidly emerging new approach to treat cancer involves collection of patient immune white blood cells and genetic re-programming of the cells to express a new cancer-detecting receptor called a CAR. This approach has revolutionized the treatment of some blood cancers, whereas solid tumours, which account for 90% of all cancers, are proving much more difficult to treat using this approach. A major challenge in this respect relates to the identification of targets that differentiate cancer from healthy cells. In a partner review, we consider clinical data already collected when CAR technology has been applied against solid tumours that express 30 different targets. Here, we explore emerging candidates for which such clinical data are not available yet, but where other data provide information about potential suitability as future clinical targets. ABSTRACT: Immunotherapy with CAR T-cells has revolutionised the treatment of B-cell and plasma cell-derived cancers. However, solid tumours present a much greater challenge for treatment using CAR-engineered immune cells. In a partner review, we have surveyed data generated in clinical trials in which patients with solid tumours that expressed any of 30 discrete targets were treated with CAR-based immunotherapy. That exercise confirms that efficacy of this approach falls well behind that seen in haematological malignancies, while significant toxic events have also been reported. Here, we consider approximately 60 additional candidates for which such clinical data are not available yet, but where pre-clinical data have provided support for their advancement to clinical evaluation as CAR target antigens.