CAR-T therapies currently remain predominantly for use in oncology according to Chimeric Therapeutics CEO and Bioshares Biotech Summit keynote speaker Jennifer Chow.
Cancer therapies commenced largely in the 1940's with chemotherapy, which could be described as bombing the patient with broad acting drugs. This was followed by targeted therapies in the 1990's such as monoclonal antibodies. In the last decade, the major advances have been in immunotherapies, such as checkpoint therapies. These targeted therapies started to improve short-term survival, and then the immunotherapies were found to improve long-term survival.