Most of the patients with
lung cancer are diagnosed at advanced stage, and they often lose the opportunity of surgical
therapy, most of whom fail to reach good prognosis after
chemotherapy. Recently, a few clinical studies have confirmed the role of adoptive T-cell transfer in the maintenance
therapy of
cancer patients. Here, we provided statistical insights into the role of CIKs in advanced
lung cancer from three different levels, cell model (in vitro co-culture system), mice model (in situ
lung cancer), and clinical research (in
lung cancer patients of different progression stages). We optimized the components of supplements and
cytokines on activating and expanding CIK cells. Based on this, we explored a new serum-free medium for in vitro activation and expansion of CIK cells. Moreover, we found that activated CIK cells could efficiently kill
lung cancer cells in cell-to-cell model in vitro and significantly reduce the
tumor growth in mice. For the clinical research, the OS rates of patients received combination of
chemotherapy and CIK treatment were significantly improved compared to the OS rates of patients only received
chemotherapy. Additionally, CIK
therapy represented good toleration in our study. All the results suggested that combination of
immunotherapy with traditional
therapy will be a feasible and promising method for the treatment of
lung cancer.