Recent Advances in the Use of NK Cells Against Cancer

Currently, the field of NK cell immunotherapy is a rapidly evolving and exciting area. An increased understanding of how NK cells are able to kill tumor cells, as well as how tumors try to subvert this attack, has led to many new ideas about how to make NK cell immunotherapy more effective. Advances in both technology and methodology have made it possible to generate large numbers of NK cells to utilize in either autologous or allogeneic NK cell transfers. In addition, an understanding of how monoclonal antibodies (mAb) work via NK cell antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) has led to many strategies to enhance the activity of these Abs. Lastly, the usage of cytokines such as IL-12, IL-15, IL-18, and IL-21 and NK cell expansion protocols in in vitro NK cell generation and pre-activation may be a major surge forward for improving the in vivo function of NK cells to kill tumor cells following adoptive transfer to patients. Many of the advances in NK cell immunotherapy are still in preclinical or early clinical trials and have shown promise for becoming frontline treatments. It is likely that the best results will occur with a combination of multiple methods, although work still needs to be done to determine the best therapy for each individual tumor type.