New research indicates that natural killer (NK) cell based adoptive immunotherapy might be an effective treatment of high-grade non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Cytokine-activated NK cells derived from patients with NMIBC and from volunteers without cancer were activated in vitro, and the effects of these cells were investigated in stem-like cancer cells and mouse models of NMIBC. Activated NK cells from donors without cancer, but not from those with NMIBC, were able to shift the cells towards a more differentiated, cisplatin-sensitive phenotype. Furthermore, transurethral infusion of NK cells from donors without cancer into mouse models of NMIBC resulted in dramatic reductions in tumour burden.
References
Ferreira-Teixeira, M. et al. Natural killer cell-based adoptive immunotherapy eradicates and drives differentiation of chemoresistant bladder cancer stem-like cells. BMC Med. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12916-016-0715-2 (2016)
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Sidaway, P. Autologous NK cells active against high-risk cancer. Nat Rev Urol 14, 9 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrurol.2016.233
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrurol.2016.233