On Oct. 22, 2018, the National Cancer Institute (NC) awarded a $10.7 million five year grant to Abramson Cancer Center to study CAR T cells in solid tumors. Specifically, the program evaluated approaches in lung cancer and mesothelioma.

The overall grant included three interrelated projects, all of which focused on exploring the ability of CAR T cells to stimulate other immune cells like dendritic cells and T cells to respond against the tumor – known the “bystander effect” – in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM).