Dendritic Cell/Cytokine-Induced Killer Cell Immunotherapy Combined with S-1 in Patients with Advanced Pancreatic Cancer: A Prospective Study.

Purpose: Advanced pancreatic cancer has remained challenging to treat effectively. This study aimed to investigate the clinical effects and safety of immunotherapy with dendritic cells and cytokine-induced killer cells (DC-CIK) administered with the chemotherapy (CT) S-1 in this malignancy. Experimental Design: Consecutive patients (n - 47) with advanced pancreatic cancer were treated with either DC-CIK + S-1, DC-CIK alone, S-1 alone, or best supportive care. Results: DC-CIK plus S-1 produced significantly longer median OS and PFS (212 and 136 days) compared with DC-CIK (128 and 85 days), CT (141 and 92 days), or supportive care only (52 and 43 days; P < 0.001). After adjusting for competing risk factors, DC-CIK combined with S-1 and receipt of 2 or more cycles of DC-CIK treatment remained independent predictors of disease-free and overall survival (P < 0.05). Phenotypic analysis of PBMCs demonstrated that the CD3(+), CD3(+)/CD4(+), and CD8(+)/CD28(+) T-cell subsets were elevated (P < 0.05), while the CD3(+)/CD8(+), CD3(+)/CD16(+)/CD56(+) and CD4(+)/CD25(+) cell subsets were significantly decreased after DC-CIK cell therapy (P < 0.05). There were no grade 3 or 4 toxicities. In addition, the mutational frequency in cell-free tumor DNA (cfDNA) declined in 4 of 14 patients who received DC-CIK, and was associated with a more favorable survival. Conclusions: Treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer with combined DC-CIK infusions and S-1 was safe, resulted in favorable PFS and OS, and modulated the peripheral blood immune repertoire. (C) 2017 AACR.