Treatment of minimal residual disease of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia by cytokine-induced killer/interleukin-2

Objective To evaluate the efficacy of cytokine induced killer (CIK)cells/interleukin 2(IL 2) on the minimal residual disease(MRD) of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia(ALL).Methods The nested polymerase chain reactions with primers for T cell receptor delta and immunoglobulin heavy chain gene were used to test MRD. Twenty eight cases of patients were considered MRD positive after more than 12 months chemotherapy.Fourteen of them were treated with CIK cells/IL 2.The other 14 were compared as control group.Results The 14 cases in the CIK group became MRD negative and none of them was relapsed by 18 month follow up. There was significant difference compared with the relapse rate of control group in which 8 out of 14 were relapsed (P 0.01) .Conclusion CIK cells/IL 2 immunotherapy can be used to eradicate MRD in childhood ALL.