Abstract
Adoptive immunotherapy, the therapeutic infusion of ex vivo activated cancer-fighting white blood cells that was pioneered by Dr. Steven Rosenberg over 30 years ago, has become more widespread due to outstanding published research documenting the clinical efficacy of this strategy. Based on the well-established in vivo functions of NK and NKT cells, their integral role in the efficacy of certain chemotherapeutic and immunomodulatory agents, and their direct therapeutic action as displayed in clinical trials, the use of autologous natural killer cell infusions is an appropriate and warranted therapeutic option for the treatment of malignant diseases, especially in patients whose disease is refractory to standard treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation.
Highlights
Cancer has recently surpassed heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States
The ex vivo expansion of natural killer cells (NK), natural killer T cells (NKT), and lymphocyte-activated killer cells (LAK) cells for non-immunotherapeutic purposes has been described for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, leukemia, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, and prostate cancer
Autologous NK/NKT treatment has potential to increase the life span as well contribute to cancer regression
Summary
Cancer has recently surpassed heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States. Restoration of NK cell number and function by means of chemotherapy, immunomodulatory agents or adoptive immunotherapy typically leads to enhanced cellular immune response to tumor and higher survival rate, as demonstrated in animal studies and human clinical trials [2] [11]-[30]. The use of NK and NKT cells as an effective component of adoptive immunotherapy protocols has been validated by clinical trials performed at Stanford University Medical Center and the University of Minnesota Cancer Center. These studies focused only on patients with Hodgkin’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma or acute myeloid leukemia. The potential implications of immunotherapy involving autologous NK/NKT cells include longer life span of cancer patients in addition to cancer regression
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