Abstract:
Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy of cytokine-induced killer cells (CIK) combined with chemotherapy in treating patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Methods All NSCLC patients involved in this study were admitted and treated at Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital from January 2003 to March 2008. Patients received autologous CIK cells combined with chemotherapy (combined group, Group A) or chemotherapy alone (simple chemotherapy group, Group B). Patients in the two groups were matched for sex and age, smoking history, Karnofsky performance status, pathological type, clinical stage, LDH, platelets, hemoglobin, etc. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated.
Results Results: The 2-year PFS and OS were 47 % and 36 %, respectively, in Group A (P < 0.05), and 71 % and 43 %, respectively, in Group B (P < 0.001). The median PFS and OS were 24 and 12 months, respectively in Group A (P < 0.05) and 48 and 18 months, respectively, in Group B (P < 0.001). There were no statistical differences in the distributions of PFS or median PFS of the patients with early stage disease between the two groups. Nevertheless, there were significant differences in the 2-year OS and median OS between the two groups (92 % vs. 72 %, P < 0.05; 73 months vs. 53 months, P < 0.05). However, the 2-year PFS and OS of advanced NSCLC patients were significantly higher in Group A than in Group B (13 % vs. 5 %, P < 0.001; and 42 % vs. 3 %, P < 0.001). The median PFS and OS of patients with advanced NSCLC were also obviously longer in Group A than in Group B (13 months vs. 6 months, P = 0.001; and 24 months vs. 10 months, P = 0.001, respectively). Multivariate analysis revealed that the cycles of CIK cellular immunotherapy were significantly correlated with longer PFS time (HR = 0.178, 95 % CI: 0.067 - 0.473, P = 0.001) and OS time (HR = 0.141, 95 % CI: 0.054 - 0.367, P < 0.001). The optimal cut-point (for grouping) of the cycles was 7 cycles.
Conclusion CIK cell immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy is associated with improved prognosis for NSCLC patients. Greater number of CIK treatment cycles seems to produce greater benefit for patients.