Optimizing CAR T-cell therapy to tackle solid tumors

In 2024, Professor Sebastian Kobold's research group at LMU University Hospital had already shown that the metabolite prostaglandin E2 can block T cells—the killer cells of the immune system—in the vicinity of a tumor, such that they do not attack cancer cells. This is one of the reasons why therapeutic CAR T cells have lacked success against solid tumors such as bowel or pancreatic cancer.