https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2016/nk-immunotherapy-leukemia 

Abstract

An immunotherapy approach that uses a new method of preparing immune cells may provide a potential treatment option for some patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), results from an early-stage clinical trial suggest.

In the phase I trial, researchers collected the immune cells, called natural killer (NK) cells, from donors, manipulated them to be better cancer killers, and infused the cells into patients with AML who had previously exhausted all other treatment options. The approach—which uses a new method of manipulating NK cells that is different from those used in prior studies—led to partial or complete remissions in five out of the nine patients who could be evaluated. It also appeared to be safe, with patients experiencing only minor side effects.

Results from the new study, led by Todd Fehniger, M.D., Ph.D., of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, were published September 21 in Science Translational Medicine.

The new method for manipulating NK cells “holds promise, and is just a start,” said Mattias Carlsten, M.D., Ph.D., who studies NK-cell immunotherapy at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, but who was not involved in the study.

Source:  Modified Immunotherapy Approach Shows Promise for Leukemia. October 21, 2016, by NCI Staff. https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2016/nk-immunotherapy-leukemia