A U.S. Navy physician who spent his early career studying HIV wound up leading a revolution in cancer treatment. Dr. Carl June, now the director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, never planned to become a pioneer. Born in Washington, D.C., in 1953, he earned his medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 1979.
His work as a Navy doctor gave him the tools to engineer immune cells to attack cancer. That approach, known as CAR-T therapy, has since transformed oncology.
In 2010, June’s laboratory published the results of the first successful CAR-T clinical trial. Three patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia received the experimental treatment. Two achieved remission, and one of those individuals remained cancer-free for more than a decade. The publication shifted the calculus for cancer researchers worldwide.
CAR-T therapy engineers a patient’s own immune cells to identify and destroy malignant growths. It grew out of earlier cellular adoptive immunotherapies, in which scientists at the National Institutes of Health studied tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes – T cells that naturally enter a tumor.
Doctors learned to isolate these cells from resected tumors and expand them in a lab, an approach that proved effective for metastatic melanoma because that cancer is highly immunogenic. But earlier methods faced challenges: some T cells failed to stay active, and others lacked sufficient numbers to stop disease progression. Other treatments, such as targeted therapy and immune checkpoint blockade, also left some patients without a viable option.
These gaps led to the development of engineered cells that could better recognize and attack malignancies. CAR-T represents a shift toward personalized medicine, allowing doctors to use a patient’s own biology to fight diseases that resist standard care.
A Living Drug Gains Regulatory Approval
June’s team treated the first pediatric patient to receive CAR-T therapy in 2012. The case of seven-year-old Emily Whitehead captured public attention and accelerated the timeline for regulatory approval. Five years later, in 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Kymriah, the first CAR-T therapy developed from June’s research.
The decision marked a turning point in cancer treatment: a living drug, engineered from a patient’s own immune cells, now had the government’s backing. The therapy offered a potential alternative for people who do not respond to traditional oncology treatments.
June has published more than 400 peer-reviewed papers and holds numerous patents related to cellular immunotherapy. His contributions have been recognized by the scientific establishment. He received the 2020 Wolf Prize in Medicine, sharing the award with Zelig Eshhar and Steven Rosenberg.
In 2024, he added the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences to his list of honors.
Expanding the Frontier with CRISPR
As of 2024, June’s lab continues to develop next-generation CAR-T therapies, including those that incorporate CRISPR gene-editing technology. The combination of cellular therapy with precise genetic engineering could expand treatment options beyond blood cancers to solid tumors. Researchers hope that these advances will address the limitations of earlier immunotherapies and provide new hope for patients with hard-to-treat malignancies.
June has also been a vocal advocate for making CAR-T therapy more affordable and accessible. The current cost of treatment remains a barrier for many patients, limiting the reach of a therapy that has already shown remarkable results.
The field continues to evolve, building on a foundation laid by early NIH studies of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and the persistent work of scientists who recognized that engineered immune cells could overcome the shortcomings of older methods. The therapy offers a personalized approach that uses a patient’s own biology to fight diseases that resist standard care, providing a potential alternative for those who do not respond to traditional oncology treatments. Consult your doctor for medical advice.
