Imagine your body has an army of “soldier” cells (called T-cells) that are supposed to fight off invaders like germs and cancer.
1. The Problem: Sometimes, these soldier cells can’t recognize the cancer cells as enemies, so they don’t attack them.
2. The Solution (CAR-T):
Doctors take a small number of your soldier cells out of your body.
In a lab, they give these soldiers new “GPS trackers” (the CARs) that are specifically programmed to hunt down and find the cancer cells.
They multiply these newly-equipped super-soldiers into a large army.
Finally, they put this army of super-soldiers back into your body.
Once inside, this enhanced army seeks out and destroys the cancer cells it was trained to find. It’s like giving your own immune system a special upgrade to fight the cancer.
