The effect of CIK-cell therapy in combination with anticancer agents in patients with inoperable pancreato-biliary cancer

Objective: To examine the efficacy of a combination of anticancer agents and cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell therapy in inoperable pancreato-biliary cancer patients. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 17 inoperable pancreato-biliary cancer patients who were hospitalized from January 2015 to December 2019 in YCH hospital, Korea, and had received at least 5 treatments with CIK-cell therapy. The patients were all on chemotherapy. The major endpoints of the investigation were the overall survival time. Results: A total of 17 patients were enrolled, 8 (47.1%) males and 9 (52.9%) females (n = 17). The mean age was 61.7 ± 7.8 years. In types of cancer, the patients of pancreatic cancer were 6, and biliary tract were 11. At the survival time analysis, 8 patients (47.1%) were still alive, but death occurred in 9 patients (52.9%). The frequency of CIK-cell therapy was 8.2 ± 4.1. The overall median survival time was 553.0 ± 129.9 days (298.4 days 807.6 days) (by Kaplan-Meier Method) which was 6-9 months longer than conventional treatment alone. Conclusion: In this study CIK-cell therapy prolonged the survival of cancer patients without any major side effects when combined with anticancer drugs. A combination of Anticancer agents with cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell can be a good proposal for improving the treatment outcomes for pancreatic and biliary cancer. *Correspondence to: Jiyoung,Lee, Department of Family Medicine, YCH Kospital, Seoul 06605, Republic of Korea, E-mail: hello.muzzica@gmail.com