Long before patients receive cutting-edge treatments like CAR T therapy, decisions about how these therapies are manufactured and delivered shape their accessibility. Dr. Kednapa Thavorn, a health economist and scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, and her team are evaluating how a domestic and decentralized CAR T cell manufacturing approach could impact Canada’s publicly funded healthcare systems and benefits for patients. Collaborating with CAR T researchers, drawing on her economics expertise, and partnering with patients, Thavorn’s interdisciplinary approach aims not just for sustainable treatments, but for sustainable systems designed to get effective therapies to the patients who need them. In Their Own Words is a behind-the-scenes interview series featuring the people who make up the BioCanRx network. We dive into the stories, science, and passion driving Canada’s researchers, highly qualified personnel, and patient advocates as they push the boundaries of cancer immunotherapy—bringing lab discoveries closer to a future when all cancers are curable diseases.