CAR-T cell therapies for T cell malignancies: does cellular immunotherapy represent the best chance of cure?

Chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapy has proven successful for B cell lymphomas and leukaemias. This success has inspired the development of CAR-T for T cell malignancies. T cell lymphomas and T-ALL are highly heterogenous diseases but are united by poor prognosis in the relapsed/refractory (r/r) setting and the lack of any novel, targeted therapies. CAR-T therapy is a promising solution for these diseases but carries a number of challenges, principally that target antigens are typically shared between malignant and normal T cells. This can cause issues with fratricide and T cell aplasia. In this review we discuss the current state of CAR-T treatment for T-ALL and T cell lymphomas, highlighting recent novel clinical data for T cell malignancies and discuss lessons that can be learned for future research in this area.