Efficacy and safety of cord blood–derived cytokine-induced killer cells in treatment of patients with malignancies

Adoptive immunotherapy with the use of cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells represents an effective therapeutic option for treating malignancies. The characteristics and function of cord blood-derived CIK (CB-CIK) cells have been evaluated both in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we assessed the efficacy and safety of administering CB-CIK cells to patients with cancer.In this retrospective clinical trial, 15 patients with cancer received CB-CIK therapy with different cycles from April 2012 to August 2014. CB-CIK cells demonstrated a high percentage of main functional fraction CD3(+)CD56(+) and efficient anti-tumor activity in vitro.After the infusion of CB-CIK cells, the subsets of CD3(+)CD4(+) T lymphocytes and CD3(-)CD56(+) T cells in the peripheral blood were significantly increased compared with those before the therapy. Of 15 patients, one patient with hepatocellular cancer and one patient with esophageal cancer achieved complete responses, two patients with ovarian cancer obtained partial remissions, 10 patients had stable disease and one patient with hepatocellular cancer had progressive disease. Acute toxicities including fever, slight fever, dizziness and other neurologic toxicities were few and occurred in patients after infusion of CB-CIK cells.These results demonstrated the feasibility and safety of treating malignancies with CB-CIK cells. The study provides a potential therapeutic approach for the patients with poor health or older patients who cannot tolerate repeated collection of blood.