Immune cell engineering for cancer therapy 2026

CAR-T cell therapy has been shown to be effective in immunotherapy for treatment of several different tumours. Here the authors show pre-specified interim outcomes from a P-BCMA-ALLO1 trial with BCMA targeted CAR-T therapy in multiple myeloma.

89ZED88082A is a zirconium-89-labeled one-armed anti-CD8α antibody for the non-invasive whole-body visualization of CD8 + T-cells by positron emission tomography (PET). Here the authors report the results of a phase 2 study of 89ZED88082A for whole-body CD8 + T-cell PET imaging in patients with large B-cell lymphoma before and during CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy.

Off-the-shelf, on-demand allogeneic CAR-T cells could represent a therapeutic alternative to autologous products for cancer therapy. Here the authors report the preclinical characterization of off-the-shelf CRISPR-Cas9– edited IL-13Rα2-specific allogeneic universal CAR-T cells and the results of a first-in-human phase I trial in patients with high-grade glioma.

A first-in-human clinical trial of iPS cell-derived invariant natural killer T cells in patients with recurrent head and neck cancer demonstrated safety and early signs of efficacy, showing tumor growth suppression and activation of immune pathways.

CAR T cell therapies have been developed to treat paediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), however, clinical efficacy remains limited. Here, the authors report that engineering B7-H3-targeting CAR T cells to express the chemokine receptor CXCR3-A enhances their trafficking and efficacy in DIPG preclinical models.

Resistance signaling in the tumor microenvironment limits CAR T cell therapy in solid tumors. This study introduces a multiplex engineered CAR T cell strategy using six gene edits to overcome multiple inhibitory barriers.

Solid tumors often resist immunotherapy due to an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Here, the authors develop CancerPAM, a multiomics CRISPR pipeline that enables tumor-specific cytokine expression to boost immune infiltration and CAR T cell efficacy in neuroblastoma.

Components of the glycocalyx have been shown to impair immune cell functions, including of CAR-T cells. Here the authors show that CAR-T cell mediated cytotoxicity in pancreatic cancer models can be enhanced by incorporating non-signalling binding domains that target the glycocalyx.

Peritoneal metastasis remains a major clinical challenge due to the lack of effective therapeutic options. In this study, the authors present intraperitoneal programming of tailored chimeric antigen receptor macrophages (CAR-Ms) as a strategy against peritoneal metastasis.

Durable, multi-antigen CAR T responses in B-cell malignancies are in need. The authors here demonstrate that AI-guided CAR designs combined with targeted pathway modulation enhance persistence, prevent antigen escape, and improve anti-tumor efficacy.

T-cell therapies have huge potential but face technical limitations. Here, the authors report on a dextran-based nanoparticle platform that efficiently expands T cells, enhances CAR T-cell potency, persistence, and anti-tumour efficacy, using simpler and faster methods than current techniques.

CAR-T cell efficacy is often limited by the inability to maintain a memory T cell program. Here, the authors show that intrinsic CXCR4 expression enhances CAR-T cell persistence and memory differentiation in acute myeloid leukemia.