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Updated: Jan 21, 2026

Isolation and Expansion of Cytotoxic Cytokine-induced Killer T Cells for Cancer Treatment
Published on: January 24, 2020
Immunotherapy with dendritic cells and cytokine-induced killer cells for hepatocellular carcinoma: A meta-analysis
Jing Cao1, Fan-Hua Kong2, Xi Liu2
1Department of Surgery, Technical University of Munich, Munich 80333, Germany.
Background:
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been revealed as the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The introduction of cell-based immunotherapy, including dendritic cells (DCs) and cytokine-induced killer cells (CIKs), has brought HCC patients an effective benefit. However, the efficacy and necessity of cellular immunotherapy after different interventional therapy remains to be further explored.
Aim:
To investigate the efficacy of cellular immunotherapy, involving DCs and CIKs, combined with different conventional treatments of HCC.
Methods:
We performed a literature search on PubMed and Web of Science up to February 15, 2019. Long-term efficacy (overall survival and recurrence) and short-term adverse effects were investigated to assess the effectiveness of immunotherapy with DCs and/or CIKs. Review Manager 5.3 was used to perform the analysis.
Results:
A total of 22 studies involving 3756 patients selected by eligibility inclusion criteria were forwarded for meta-analysis. Combined with the conventional clinical treatment, immunotherapy with DCs and/or CIKs was demonstrated to significantly improve overall survival at 6 mo [risk ratio (RR) = 1.07; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01-1.13, P = 0.02], 1 year (RR = 1.12; 95%CI: 1.07-1.17, P < 0.00001), 3 years (RR = 1.23; 95%CI: 1.15-1.31, P < 0.00001) and 5 years (RR = 1.26; 95%CI: 1.15-1.37, P < 0.00001). Recurrence rate was significantly reduced by cellular immunotherapy at 6 mo (RR = 0.50; 95%CI: 0.36-0.69, P < 0.0001) and 1 year (RR = 0.82; 95%CI: 0.75-0.89, P < 0.00001). Adverse effect assessment addressed that immunotherapy with DCs and/or CIKs was accepted as a safe, feasible treatment.
Conclusion:
Combination immunotherapy with DCs, CIKs and DC/CIK with various routine treatments for HCC was evidently suggested to improve patients' prognosis by increasing overall survival and reducing cancer recurrence.
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