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Post-transplant Events

The anti-tumour activity of allogeneic cytokine-induced killer cells in patients who relapse after allogeneic transplant for haematological malignancies

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 47, pages 957–966 (2012)Cite this article

Abstract

We performed a Phase I/II clinical trial to study the feasibility, toxicity and efficacy of allogeneic cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell expansion, and treatment for patients with haematological malignancies who relapsed after allogeneic haemopoietic SCT (allo-HSCT). Allogeneic CIK cells were successfully generated for a total of 24 patients, including those from patients' own leukapheresis products in 5 patients who had no access to further donor cells. The median CD3+ T-cell expansion was 9.33 (1.3–38.97) fold, and CD3+CD56+ natural killer (NK)-like T-cell expansion was 27.77 (2.59–438.93) fold. A total of 55 infusions were done for 16 patients who had either failed or progressed after initial response to various individualized chemotherapy regimens and donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI), at doses ranging from 10 to 200 million CD3+ cells/kg. Response attributable to CIK cell infusion was observed in five patients. These included two with ALL, two with Hodgkin's disease (HD) and one with AML, and two of whom had a response sustained for more than 2 years. Acute GVHD occurred in three and was easily treatable. This study provides some evidence suggestive of the efficacy of allogeneic CIK cells even after failure of DLI in some cases.

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to all nursing staff in the Department of Haematology for their assistance and expert nursing care. The project involving cellular therapy facility is funded by the Singapore Cancer Syndicate Grants TS39 and TS68. The clinical project is funded by the Singapore National Medical Research Council Grant NMCR/1097/2006.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Haematology, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore

    Y-C Linn, H-X Yong, K-K Heng, W Hwang, Y Loh & Y-T Goh

  2. Cell Therapy Facility, Blood Services Group, Health Sciences Authority, Singapore

    M Niam, S Chu, A Choong, G Suck, M Chan & M Koh

  3. Department of Haematology, St. George's Hospital and Medical School, London, UK

    M Koh

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  1. Y-C Linn
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Correspondence to Y-C Linn.

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Linn, YC., Niam, M., Chu, S. et al. The anti-tumour activity of allogeneic cytokine-induced killer cells in patients who relapse after allogeneic transplant for haematological malignancies. Bone Marrow Transplant 47, 957–966 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2011.202

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