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.”