A preparation of autologous T-lymphocytes that has been genetically engineered to express a fully humanized, universal, second generation chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) with a CD28/CD3zeta co-stimulatory domain, and a binding domain that can recognize a peptide motive of an antigen-specific targeting module (TM), with potential immunomodulating and antineoplastic activities. Upon administration, autologous universal CAR-expressing T-lymphocytes UniCAR02-T remain inactivated. Upon administration of an antigen-specific TM, the binding domain of UniCAR02-T binds to the nuclear antigen motif of the TM, and UniCAR02-T is activated when the antigen-binding moiety of the TM binds to the specific antigen expressed on tumor cells. This induces selective toxicity in and causes lysis of tumor cells expressing the specific antigen.