Clinical significance of immunotherapy with combined three kinds of cells for operable colorectal cancer

Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy have presented with the ability of killing tumor cells, as well as damaging the immune function, which can be corrected by the immunotherapy. The purpose of this perspective cohort study was to evaluate the efficacy of postoperative immunotherapies of tumor lysate-loaded dendritic cells (DC), in vitro DC-activated T (DC-AT), and activated T cells (ATC) combined with chemotherapy on the survival of patients with operable colorectal cancer. A total of 253 patients with primary colorectal cancer resection including 181patients receiving postoperative simple chemotherapy (control group) and 72 patients receiving immunotherapies of DC, DC-AT, and ATC combined with chemotherapy during the corresponding period (immunotherapy group) were enrolled in this perspective cohort study. The survival of these patients was analyzed. The immunotherapy group presented a higher 5-year overall survival rate than the control group (75.63 vs 67.81 %, P = 0.035), as well as 3-year overall survival rate (87.07 vs 74.80 %, P = 0.045). For patients with advanced cancer (TNM stages III and IV), immunotherapy significantly promotes mean survival than control subjects (59.74 ± 3.21 vs 49.99 ± 2.54 years, P = 0.034). Patients who received more than three cycles of immunotherapies had a higher 5-year overall survival rate than those with less than three cycles (82.10 vs 69.90 %, P = 0.035). No serious adverse effect was observed in the immunotherapy group. Postoperative immunotherapies with DC, DC-AT, and ATC combination can promote the survival of patients with operable colorectal cancer (Clinical Trials, ChiCTR-OCH-12002610).