DDW’s Maria Wallace attended Cancer Research Horizons’ On the Horizon breakfast event to learn more about the latest opportunities and challenges in cancer drug discovery and development. 

Leading experts from academia, pharma, biotech and investment met in London, UK Thursday 11 June to discuss the potential of in vivo CAR-T therapies to transform the future of cancer treatment. 

The breakfast event, organised by Cancer Research Horizons and hosted at The Royal Society, was the second instalment of the On the Horizon series, which showcases emerging breakthroughs and innovations in cancer research and treatment. 

In vivo CAR-T represents a potential paradigm shift by eliminating patient-specific ex vivo manufacturing and enabling scalable, off the shelf immunotherapies for oncology. Fuelled by emerging clinical validation and billions in M&A, in vivo CAR-T is one of the most aggressively funded and strategically important trends in immunotherapy. 

A panel featuring Dr Saar Gill of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr Rémi Soula of Thesian Bio, Dr Kyriacos Mitrophanous, OXB and Jonathan Tobin of Brandon Capital focused on the future development of in vivo CAR-T technologies, including their potential application in solid tumours – one of the field’s most significant remaining challenges. 

In her closing remarks, Tanya Hughes, Investor and External Relations Lead, Cancer Research Horizons highlighted both the momentum behind the technology and the hurdles that remain. “We’re at an inflection point, pharma has already voted $10 billion in this technology, but important questions remain around safety, biology, durability, manufacturing, precision and, the big question: solid tumour application.” 

While significant scientific and clinical challenges remain, the event underscored growing confidence that in vivo CAR-T could play a transformative role in the next generation of cancer therapies.