Efficacy of Adoptive Immune-cell Therapy in Patients with Advanced Gastric Cancer: A Retrospective Study

• Published in: Anticancer research Vol. 37; no. 7; pp. 3947 - 3954
• Main Authors: Takimoto, Rishu, Kamigaki, Takashi, Okada, Sachiko, Matsuda, Eriko, Ibe, Hiroshi, Oguma, Eri, Naitoh, Keiko, Makita, Kaori, Goto, Shigenori
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Greece 01.07.2017
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Antineoplastic Agents - therapeutic use; Combined Modality Therapy - methods; Dendritic Cells - transplantation; Female; General Surgery; Humans; Immunotherapy, Adoptive - methods; Male; Middle Aged; Radiotherapy; Retrospective Studies; Stomach Neoplasms - pathology; Stomach Neoplasms - therapy; Survival Analysis; T-Lymphocyte Subsets - transplantation; Treatment Outcome; Young Adult; Immune-cell therapy; gastric cancer; chemotherapy; surgical operation
• ISSN: 0250-7005; 1791-7530
• DOI: 10.21873/anticanres.11778

Conventional therapy for advanced gastric cancer (GC) has limited survival benefits. In this retrospective study, we aimed to investigate the efficacy of immune-cell therapy, using in vitro-activated T-lymphocytes with and without dendritic cells (DCs), in combination with standard therapies in terms of the survival of patients with advanced GC. A total of 242 patients who were diagnosed as having stage-IV GC were enrolled in this study to receive immune-cell therapy with or without standard therapies, such as chemotherapy, surgery, or radiation therapy. Overall survival was analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier with log-rank test and Cox regression methods. Immune-cell therapy increased median survival time (21.5 months) in patients with advanced GC. The patients who underwent surgery with or without chemotherapy as a prior treatment showed better prognosis than those who received other therapies (p<0.001). Patients who showed stable disease or a partial response to immune-cell therapy had a better prognosis than those with progressive disease (p<0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that performance status, the type of immune-cell therapy, and prior treatment were independent prognostic factors for patients with GC. No serious adverse event was reported in immune-cell therapy. Immune-cell therapy might extend the survival of patients with advanced GC.