[Current research advance on cellular immunotherapy for leukemia-review]

Despite the chemotherapy is successful in inducing remission of hematologic malignancy, this disease also has a high probability of relapse; besides, the toxicity of chemotherapy for these patients can not be avoided. Researchers have been attempting to eliminate tumor cells by immunotherapy. Recently, various leukemia-associated antigens (LAA) that are recognized by cytotoxic T cell (CTL) in the context of HLA class I molecules have been identified. These LAA include WT1, PR-3, RHAMM, BCR-ABL and Aur-A. On the basis of these findings, various clinical trials of immunotherapy for hematologic malignancy including tumor peptide vaccination, adoptive T cell therapy, NK cell therapy and dendritic cells-cytokine induced killer (DC-CIK) cell therapy are on going. In this review, the current status and future feasibility of cellular immunotherapy for leukemia are discussed.