[iNOVA4Health SEMINAR] Natural Killer cells in cancer: From discovery to clinical applications

Title: Natural Killer cells in cancer: From discovery to clinical applications

Speaker: Evren Alici

From: Karolinska Institutet (KI)

Abstract: Despite substantial therapy progress in the last decades, mortality in most malignant diseases remains high, indicating a major threat to the general population and the health care system. Many efforts are undertaken to develop innovative therapeutic approaches, especially in the field of immune therapy. Approaches based on CAR-T lymphocytes have yielded promising results. However, supplementary therapeutic strategies are urgently needed since tumors often find means to escape T cell-based therapies. Moreover, following T cell-based therapies frequent severe side effects are observed. Thus, there are now great hopes for the application of Natural Killer (NK) cells, because of their efficient direct cytotoxic anti- tumor activity and their activating interaction with other immune cells. NK cell-based therapy is generally considered safe to tolerate at very high doses, and to date, no adverse effects of NK cell therapy were observed. We have previously tested autologous and donor-derived NK cell therapies in clinical settings with some degree of success. We are currently testing an off-the-shelf NK cell-based immunotherapy approach, where the NK cell graft is functional but can evade hostcellular immunity, thus decreasing the need for lymphodepleting regimens.