Adoptive immunotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer by NK and cytotoxic T lymphocytes mixed effector cells: Retrospective clinical observation

The objective of the current study was to retrospectively investigate the efficacy of adaptive transfer of natural killer (NK) and cytotoxic T lymphocytes mixed effector (NKTm) cells in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients in comparison to a control group of NSCLC patients. NKTm cells were obtained by ex vivo expansion of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients followed with phenotype determination. Primary end point was overall survival (OS). Ex vivo expansion caused significant enrichment of CD3(+), CD3(+)CD8(+), CD45RO(+), CD25(+), CD29(+) and CD3(+)CD16(+)/CD56(+) cells (P<0.05). The OS of the immunotherapy group was significantly longer than that of the control group and the risk of death decreased by 43.8% (31.1 months vs 18.1 months, P=0.008, HR=0.562, 95% CI 0.367-0.860). Two-year survival rate of patients in the immunotherapy group was better than in the control group (62.95% vs 35.44%, P<0.05). Gender, clinical stage, application of TKI, number of chemotherapy cycle, and application of NKTm immunotherapy were independent prognostic factors for NSCLC patients. The OS in subgroups of males, <60 years age, clinical stage IIIb+IV, no brain metastases, without radiotherapy, chemotherapy of >6 cycles, no application of TKI and TKI invalid was prolonged after NKTm cellular immunotherapy (P<0.05). Ex vivo expansion of NKTm cells was effective and had no adverse safety concerns, thus highlight that adaptive transfer of NKTm cells may prolong the OS of NSCLC patients and increase 2 year survival rate.