The clinical effects of dendritic cell vaccines combined with cytokine-induced killer cells intraperitoneal injected on patients with malignant ascites.

Malignant ascites (MA) is a pathological condition due to a variety of primary abdominal and extra-abdominal neoplasms. It is a primary cause of morbidity and presents many difficulties in evaluation and treatment. In this study we used dendritic cell vaccines combined with cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells intraperitoneal injected in patients with MA, and evaluated the safety and efficacy of this treatment. The results showed that the percentage of CD3(+) CD56(+) CIK cells after treatment increased significantly while the percentage of CD4(+) CD25(+) Treg cells decreased (P < 0.05). The clinical response rate (RR) was 40.9% and disease control rate (DCR) was 77.3%. We then studied and identified the mechanisms of the anti-tumor effects of the vaccines by analyzing a series of cytokines that are commonly involved in tumor progression and ascitic development including granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin-10 (IL-10), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), tumor necrosis factor-α (TGF-α), tumor necrosis factor-β (TGF-β), Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1). These data demonstrated that intraperitoneal injection with DC vaccines combined with CIK cells in patients with malignant peritoneal effusion is safe and feasible. This therapy modality can achieve a certain clinical benefit even in patients resistant to conventional treatments.