Abstract CT147: Safety and efficacy of high purity and activity NK cells therapy in combination with IgG1 antibody in patients with gastric or colorectal cancer: A phase I clinical trial
Authors: Ishikawa Takeshi , Okayama Tetsuya , Sakamoto Naoyuki , Ideno Mitsuko , Oka Kaname , Enoki Tatsuji , Mineno Junichi , Konishi Hideyuki , Kokura Satoshi , Naito Yuji , Itoh Yoshito 
Published: August 2018

Background; Natural killer (NK) cells exhibit strong cytotoxic activity against tumor cells, and produce numerous cytokines resulting in the activation of the adoptive immune systems. Thus, NK cell is considered ideal cell for adoptive cancer immunotherapy. But the difficulty of obtaining large numbers of NK cells that are safe to administer deters its clinical use. We successfully generated large numbers of activated NK cells from small quantities of blood and also determined that the expanded cells were safe to administer in a monotherapy (J Transl Med (2015) 13:277). Since NK cells play a key role in antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), administration of NK cells would be expected to enhance the efficacy of IgG1 monoclonal antibodies by augmenting ADCC. This phase I clinical trial evaluated the safety, toxicity, and immunological response of the adoptive NK therapy in combination with IgG1 antibodies.

Patients and Methods; Patients with unresectable advanced gastric or colorectal cancer who have administered or have planned to administer IgG1 antibody (i.e. trastuzumab for HER2 positive gastric cancer or cetuximab for RAS-wild colorectal cancer). NK cells were expanded from PBMCs with the same method in previous clinical trial, briefly ex vivo by stimulating PBMCs with OK432, IL-2, and modified FN-CH296-induced T cells. Expanded NK cells were intravenously injected 3 days after IgG1 antibody administration in a dose-escalating manner (dose 0.5 × 109, 1.0 × 109, 2.0 × 109 cells/injection, three patients/one cohort), every 3 weeks for 3 cycles. We evaluated the safety and efficacy of the combination therapy. To assess the immunological response, immunomonitoring was performed.

Results; Nine eligible patients were enrolled. NK cell populations expanded with our system were confirmed as being enriched in NK cells (median 92.9%) with high expression of NKG2D(97.6%) and CD16(69.6%). This combination therapy was well tolerated with no severe adverse events. Among six evaluable patients, 4 presented SD, 2 presented PD. Of the four SD patients, 3 showed an overall decrease in tumor size after combination therapy. In immunomonitoring analysis, whole blood IFN-gamma production level was increased and the proportion of Treg (Treg/CD4) in peripheral blood was decreased after the combination therapy.

Conclusions; This is the first clinical trial of the combination of adoptive NK cell therapy and IgG1 monoclonal antibodies. Our data provide evidence of good tolerability and preliminary anti-tumor activity for this combination therapy. Moreover, immunological monitoring revealed that the combination therapy induced Th1-type immune response and reduced peripheral Tregs. However, given the limited activity observed in this clinical trial, additional studies are necessary to develop these combination approaches.

Citation Format: Takeshi Ishikawa, Tetsuya Okayama, Naoyuki Sakamoto, Mitsuko Ideno, Kaname Oka, Tatsuji Enoki, Junichi Mineno, Hideyuki Konishi, Satoshi Kokura, Yuji Naito, Yoshito Itoh. Safety and efficacy of high purity and activity NK cells therapy in combination with IgG1 antibody in patients with gastric or colorectal cancer: A phase I clinical trial [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr CT147.