Abstract
Purpose. To determine the immune response after dendritic cell (DC) vaccine and cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK) therapy and assess its associated toxicity, survival benefit, and changes in the quality of life (QOL) of advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Methods. We recruited 100 patients with unresectable CRC orrelapsed CRC after surgery who received DC vaccine and CIK cells (group immunotherapy, group I), and, as a control, 251 patients who had similar characteristics and underwent similar treatments, except for this immunotherapy (group nonimmunotherapy, group NI). After a follow-up period of 489.2 ± 160.4 days, overall survival (OS) of the two groups was compared using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results. In group I, 62% of patients developed a positive delayed type hypersensitivity response, and most patients showed an improvement in physical strength (75.2%), appetite (74.2%), sleeping (72.1%), and body weight (70.1%). Adverse events were fever (29.5%), insomnia (19.2%), anorexia (9.1%), sore joints (5.4%), and skin rash (1.0%). No toxicity was observed in patients treated with DC vaccine and CIK therapy. OS was significantly longer in group I than in group NI (P = 0.043). Conclusion. DC vaccine and CIK therapy were safe and could induce an immune response against CRC, thereby improving QOL and prolonging OS.
Highlights
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide, and more than half of the patients with this malignancy will die from their disease [1,2,3]
Patients with advanced CRC were advised to undergo immunotherapy consisting of an autologous dendritic cell (DC) vaccine and cytokineinduced killer (CIK) cell treatment and were asked to provide informed consent
We found that 62% of patients (62 of 100) treated with DC vaccine and CIK cells developed a positive cell-mediated cytotoxicity response (Table 2)
Summary
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide, and more than half of the patients with this malignancy will die from their disease [1,2,3]. For early-stage CRC patients, resection followed by adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy is the preferred treatment strategy, resulting in a 5-year survival rate of 70% to 80% [7]. Most patients with early-stage CRC will relapse and eventually develop advanced CRC, which has a poor prognosis, with a 5-year survival rate of 5% or less [7]. In this situation, chemotherapy is regarded as the first-line treatment
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