Our Breakthrough

Modifying Immune Cells to Fight Cancer

First cell therapy to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Dr. Grupp with CAR-T Cell patient

Our Challenge

Conquering a Deadly Cancer

Patients with relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia face a devastating prognosis – and have few treatment options.

Our Solution

A Unique Approach

With philanthropic support, CHOP oncologist Stephan Grupp, MD, PhD, and colleagues find a way to modify patients’ own T cells so they can find and destroy cancer cells and persist in the body over long periods.

CAR T Cell Killing an Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Cell
DR. Grupp and CAR-T Cell patient Emily

Our Impact

Many Lives Saved

Children from around the world, most of whom had no other treatment options left, have been treated with this unique immunotherapy at CHOP. After achieving remission, 70% of these children remained in remission at two years in our most recent study.

Meet Emily

Our Team

Immunotherapy Pioneers

Our cancer immunotherapy researchers are world-renowned for making breakthroughs that transform patients’ lives.

Dr. Grupp bio photo

Stephan Grupp, MD, PhD

Director of the Cancer Immunotherapy Program and Director of Translational Research for the Center for Childhood Cancer Research

Dr. Maude bio photo

Shannon L. Maude, MD, PhD

Attending Physician, Immunotherapy, CAR T-cell Therapy

Moving Ahead

The Next Frontier

Our team continues to research the use of CAR-T in the treatment of several forms of pediatric cancer, and recently opened clinical trials to test its use in children with newly diagnosed acute lymphoblastic leukemia and in children with relapsed and refractory acute myeloid leukemia.

See Where We Are Headed

There are currently more than 2 dozen cell and gene therapy trials enrolling patients at CHOP.

Help Us Find Solutions

We find real-world, scalable solutions to seemingly intractable problems. Led by the greatest minds in medicine, and with support from our generous donors, our world-renowned teams are taking on the toughest diseases the world has ever seen – and winning.


Scientific image collage