J Liver Cancer.  2018 Mar;18(1):67-74. 10.17998/jlc.18.1.67.

A Case of Management for Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Extrahepatic Metastasis by Autologous Natural Killer Cells Combined with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor

• Woo A
• Kim EJ
• Shin SY
• Jeon HJ
• Park H
• Chon YE
• Lee YB
• Hwang SG
• Rim KS
• Lee JH

• KMID: 2409651
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.17998/jlc.18.1.67

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has extremely poor prognosis. Immunotherapy has emerged as a new treatment for a number of cancers. Adoptive immunotherapy is one of the important cancer immunotherapy, which relies on the various lymphocytes including cytotoxic T lymphocytes, natural killer (NK) and cytokine induced killer cells. Also, there has been advance in techniques of NK cell activation to more effectively kill the cancer cells. Of note, recently the blocking antibodies targeting programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) have shown promising results in diverse cancers including HCC. We report our recent experience of a patient accompanying advanced HCC with extrahepatic metastases. Disease progression had occurred after sorafenib administration, while the patient showed local tumor control and tumor marker decrease by NK cell immunotherapy combined with PD-1 inhibitor therapy. Though, there was no definite survival advantage due to impaired liver function, which might be caused by treatment related toxicities as well as cancer progression.

Keyword

Hepatocellular carcinoma; Immunotherapy; Natural killer cells; Programmed cell death 1 protein

MeSH Terms

Antibodies, Blocking
Carcinoma, Hepatocellular*
Cell Death
Cytokine-Induced Killer Cells
Disease Progression
Humans
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy, Adoptive
Killer Cells, Natural*
Liver
Lymphocytes
Neoplasm Metastasis*
Prognosis
Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor
T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic
Antibodies, Blocking
Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor