Expanded CD56superbrightCD16+ NK Cells from Ovarian Cancer Patients Are Cytotoxic against Autologous Tumor in a Patient-Derived Xenograft Murine Model.

2018 
Natural Killer (NK) cells are useful for cancer immunotherapy and have proven clinically effective against hematological malignancies. However, immunotherapies for poor prognosis solid malignancies, including ovarian cancer, have not been as successful due to immunosuppression by solid tumors. Although re-arming patients9 own NK cells to treat cancer is an attractive option, success of that strategy is limited by the impaired function of NK cells from cancer patients and by inhibition by self-MHC. In this study, we show that expansion converts healthy donor and immunosuppressed ovarian cancer patient NK cells to a cytotoxic CD56superbrightCD16+ subset with activation state and antitumor functions that increase with CD56 brightness. We investigated whether these expanded NK cells may overcome the limitations of autologous NK cell therapy against solid tumors. Peripheral blood- and ascites-derived NK cells from ovarian cancer patients were expanded then adoptively transferred into cell-line and autologous patient-derived xenograft models of human ovarian cancer. Expanded ovarian cancer patient NK cells reduced the burden of established tumors and prolonged survival. These results suggest that CD56bright NK cells harbour superior antitumor function compared to CD56dim cells. Thus, NK cell expansion may overcome limitations on autologous NK cell therapy by converting the patient9s NK cells to a cytotoxic subset that exerts a therapeutic effect against autologous tumor. These findings suggest that the value of expanded autologous NK cell therapy for ovarian cancer and other solid malignancies should be clinically assessed.
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