Don't get too excited, this is medicine right? Surgeons literally cut people open -- don't try this at home.
CAR-T these days is indicated after hugely toxic therapies like BMT have failed. Plus they understand the danger of the cytokine storm responses and are at the ready to mitigate. A successful CAR-T therapy is massively less toxic overall.
If you really want to get freaked out: CAR-T uses a modified, neutered virus to reprogram the T cells. Today that's some lentivirus, but in the 2000s when this was a new therapy, it was a modified HIV. Things get safer over time!
CAR-T these days is indicated after hugely toxic therapies like BMT have failed. Plus they understand the danger of the cytokine storm responses and are at the ready to mitigate. A successful CAR-T therapy is massively less toxic overall.
If you really want to get freaked out: CAR-T uses a modified, neutered virus to reprogram the T cells. Today that's some lentivirus, but in the 2000s when this was a new therapy, it was a modified HIV. Things get safer over time!