RAS question
CAR-T cell therapy is a type of:
Correct answer: (C) Immunotherapy using genetically modified T-cells.
CAR-T cell therapy is an immunotherapy that uses a patient's T cells, genetically modified in the laboratory, to recognise and attack cancer cells.
Explanation
CAR-T, or chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, is not a drug, herb, beam of radiation, or conventional chemical treatment. It is a form of T-cell transfer immunotherapy. The National Cancer Institute explains that T-cell transfer therapy makes a patient's own immune cells better able to attack cancer, and lists CAR T-cell therapy as one of its main types. In CAR-T therapy, T cells are collected from the patient and changed in the laboratory so that they make a chimeric antigen receptor. These modified cells are then grown and infused back, where the receptor helps them attach to specific proteins on cancer cells and improves their ability to attack those cells. That is why the best description is immunotherapy using genetically modified T cells.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Herbal medicine relies on plant-based preparations, whereas CAR-T is a laboratory-based cellular immunotherapy built around modified T cells.
- (B) Radiation therapy treats disease through radiation, while CAR-T works by returning altered immune cells to the patient to attack cancer cells.
- (D) Chemotherapy uses chemical drugs; CAR-T is classified as immunotherapy because it uses the patient's immune cells after laboratory modification.
Concept
This tests the Science and Technology area on biotechnology in medicine, especially cellular and gene-based therapies. It recurs in RAS because examiners often ask candidates to classify emerging health technologies by mechanism, not by the disease they treat.