Women treated with CAR T-cell therapy can get pregnant safely, study discovers

Women treated with CAR T-cell therapy for a variety of autoimmune diseases can safely become pregnant afterward, a small study suggests.

CAR-T therapy involves removing a patient’s white blood cells, modifying them in a laboratory, and reinfusing and multiplying them with the modifications helping to “reset” the body’s immune defenses.

CAR-T therapies were originally used only in cancer patients, but researchers are increasingly testing them for autoimmune diseases like lupus, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, all of which commonly afflict women of childbearing age.