Effects of cytokine-induced killer cell treatment in colorectal cancer patients: A retrospective study

Cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells are ex vivo generated heterogeneous NK-like T-lymphocytes, which have anti-tumor effects in vitro and in vivo. This present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of autologous CIK cell immunotherapy on the prognosis of colorectal cancer patients. Progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and immune cells were assessed. We found that the percentages of CD8⁺, CD3⁺ CD56⁺, CD3⁻ CD56⁺ cell subsets were significantly increased from 19.7 ± 6.3%, 13.8 ± 7.9%, 1.0 ± 1.2% to 35.8 ± 11.6% (P < 0.001), 20.9 ± 12.5 (P < 0.001), 14.4 ± 9.5% (P < 0.001), respectively in the CIK group after 14 days of incubation. The median PFS and median OS in the CIK group were 25.8 months and 41.3 months respectively, while 12.0 months and 30.8 months in the control group. The PFS and OS curves of the CIK group and control group indicated that there were also statistically differences between two groups in PFS (log-rank, P = 0.01) and OS (log-rank, P = 0.037). Our results indicate that CIK cell immunotherapy in combination with chemotherapy can reduce the recurrence rate and promote the survival time of patients with colorectal cancer.