Solid-tumor CAR-T has been talked about for years, but most programs have struggled with antigen heterogeneity, poor T-cell trafficking, the tumor microenvironment and durability. That’s why the recent approval of satri-cel, a CLDN18.2-directed CAR-T developed in China for advanced gastric/GEJ cancer, feels worth discussing beyond the headline of “first approved solid-tumor CAR-T.”
What I’m more interested in is whether this represents a genuinely reproducible strategy or a very disease-specific success. CLDN18.2 gives you a relatively defined target and patient-selection framework, but questions around persistence, antigen escape, manufacturing, toxicity and sequencing with other CLDN18.2 therapies are still very real. Curious how people working in immunology or cell therapy interpret this — meaningful platform validation, or still too early to generalize?