Trial reportCancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII2026
Adjuvant cytokine-induced killer cell immunotherapy in hepatocellular carcinoma: real-world data and 9-year extended follow-up of a randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Evolving Role of Immunotherapy in the Treatment with Curative Purpose of Early, Intermediate and Advanced Stage Hepatocellular Carcinoma.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2026Review
- Translational landscape of cytokine-induced killer cell therapy: an analysis based on the Informa database.Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
17 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMost adjuvant therapies for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have failed except for autologous cytokine-induced killer (CIK) therapy, which prolonged recurrence-free survival (RFS) in a previously reported randomized controlled trial (RCT) and real-world data (RWD).
methodsThis study aimed to assess the long-term outcomes of adjuvant CIK therapy using both an extended follow-up of the original RCT and a retrospective cohort study. An extended follow-up analysis of the RCT included 226 patients (114 in the CIK group and 112 in the control group). The follow-up duration was extended from 2 to 9 years after the enrollment of the last patient. In parallel, a retrospective RWD study was performed involving 577 patients from two tertiary centers in Korea, including 251 who received adjuvant CIK therapy and 326 controls. Propensity score matching (PSM) was applied to adjust for baseline imbalances. The primary endpoint was RFS in both studies.
resultsIn the RWD study (median follow-up = 57.2 months), the CIK group demonstrated significantly prolonged RFS than controls both before PSM (median = 101.2 versus 64.7 months; HR = 0.69, 95% CI 0.53-0.90, P = 0.006) and after PSM (median = 101.2 vs. 65.7 months; HR = 0.64, 95% CI 0.45-0.91, P = 0.01). In the extended follow-up of the RCT (median follow-up = 116.1 months), the CIK group exhibited significantly prolonged RFS (median = 44.0 vs. 30.0 months; hazard ratio [HR] = 0.72, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.54-0.97, P = 0.033) compared to the control group.
conclusionsAdjuvant CIK cell therapy significantly improved RFS in both a RWD study and a 9-year extended RCT follow-up, supporting its reproducible benefit in reducing recurrence after curative treatment of HCC. These consistent findings provide strong evidence for the clinical utility of CIK therapy as a durable adjuvant immunotherapeutic strategy for HCC.
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