Immunotherapy has emerged as a potent and effective treatment for multiple cancer types. For example, the engineering of T cells through the expression of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) against tumors has shown remarkable potential. This review outlines clinical applications of CAR-T cell therapy in hematological malignancies and solid tumors, with a focus on the main challenges related to the safety and efficacy of the current CAR-T cell therapy and the promising strategies to maximize antitumor efficacy while minimizing adverse events. Finally, we present the future outlook of CAR-T cell therapy for the treatment against malignancies. We believe that potential problems can be overcome by strategies to further facilitate effective clinical translation and improve the efficacy, especially through the combination of different approaches.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01853631.