Vaccine Boosting CAR-T Cell Therapy: Current and Future Strategies

Abstract

Immunotherapy for cancer treatment is growing at an unprecedented rate since the inception of chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cells. However, the efficacy of CAR-T cells against solid tumors is hampered by various issues, including “on-target, off-tumor toxicities,” T cell exhaustion, and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. To overcome these limitations, recent advances focus on optimizing CAR-T cells using vaccines to develop more effective cell immunotherapies. Here, we summarize the most recent studies on how vaccine-based CAR-T therapies are advancing the response of cancer immunotherapy as well as the current state of their clinical and preclinical development. Finally, we share perspectives on how future studies can incorporate other strategies to augment the antitumor response of vaccine-assisted CAR-T cell therapy.