%0 Journal Article
%T Autologous Tumor Lysate-Pulsed Dendritic Cell Immunotherapy with Cytokine-Induced Killer Cells Improves Survival in Gastric and Colorectal Cancer Patients
%A Daiqing Gao
%A Changyou Li
%A Xihe Xie
%A Peng Zhao
%A Xiaofang Wei
%A Weihong Sun
%A Hsin-Chen Liu
%A Aris T. Alexandrou
%A Jennifer Jones
%A Ronghua Zhao
%A Jian Jian Li
%J PLOS ONE
%D 2014
%I Public Library of Science (PLoS)
%R 10.1371/journal.pone.0093886
%X Gastric and colorectal cancers (GC and CRC) have poor prognosis and are resistant to chemo- and/or radiotherapy. In the present study, the prophylactic effects of dendritic cell (DC) vaccination are evaluated on disease progression and clinical benefits in a group of 54 GC and CRC patients treated with DC immunotherapy combined with cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells after surgery with or without chemo-radiotherapy. DCs were prepared from the mononuclear cells isolated from patients using IL-2/GM-CSF and loaded with tumor antigens; CIK cells were prepared by incubating peripheral blood lymphocytes with IL-2, IFN-¦Ã, and CD3 antibodies. The DC/CIK therapy started 3 days after low-dose chemotherapy and was repeated 3¨C5 times in 2 weeks as one cycle with a total of 188.3¡À79.8¡Á106 DCs and 58.8¡À22.3¡Á108 CIK cells. Cytokine levels in patients' sera before and after treatments were measured and the follow-up was conducted for 98 months to determine disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). The results demonstrate that all cytokines tested were elevated with significantly higher levels of IFN-¦Ã and IL-12 in both GC and CRC cohorts of DC/CIK treated patients. By Cox regression analysis, DC/CIK therapy reduced the risk of post-operative disease progression (p<0.01) with an increased OS (<0.01). These results demonstrate that in addition to chemo- and/or radiotherapy, DC/CIK immunotherapy is a potential effective approach in the control of tumor growth for post-operative GC and CRC patients.
%U http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0093886