Go to JCI Insight
  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Alerts
  • Advertising/recruitment
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • By specialty
    • Cardiology
    • Gastroenterology
    • Immunology
    • Metabolism
    • Nephrology
    • Neuroscience
    • Oncology
    • Pulmonology
    • Vascular biology
    • All...
  • Videos
    • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
    • Author's Takes
  • Reviews
    • View all reviews...
    • Mechanisms Underlying the Metabolic Syndrome (Oct 2019)
    • Reparative Immunology (Jul 2019)
    • Allergy (Apr 2019)
    • Biology of familial cancer predisposition syndromes (Feb 2019)
    • Mitochondrial dysfunction in disease (Aug 2018)
    • Lipid mediators of disease (Jul 2018)
    • Cellular senescence in human disease (Apr 2018)
    • View all review series...
  • Collections
    • Recently published
    • In-Press Preview
    • Commentaries
    • Concise Communication
    • Editorials
    • Viewpoint
    • Scientific Show Stoppers
    • Top read articles
  • Clinical Medicine
  • JCI This Month
    • Current issue
    • Past issues

  • About
  • Editors
  • Consulting Editors
  • For authors
  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • By specialty
  • Subscribe
  • Alerts
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Conversations with Giants in Medicine
  • Author's Takes
  • Recently published
  • Brief Reports
  • Technical Advances
  • Commentaries
  • Editorials
  • Hindsight
  • Review series
  • Reviews
  • The Attending Physician
  • First Author Perspectives
  • Scientific Show Stoppers
  • Top read articles
  • Concise Communication

Review 10.1172/JCI129338

Killers 2.0: NK cell therapies at the forefront of cancer control

Jonathan J. Hodgins,1,2 Sarwat T. Khan,1 Maria M. Park,1,2 Rebecca C. Auer,1,3 and Michele Ardolino1,2

1Centre for Cancer Therapeutics, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

2Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, and

3Department of Surgery, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Address correspondence to: Michele Ardolino, 501 Smyth Road, Cancer Center, 3-328, Ottawa, Ontario K1H8M2, Canada. Phone: 613.737.8899 ext. 77257; Email: m.ardolino@uottawa.ca.

Authorship note: JJH and STK equally contributed to this manuscript.

Find articles by Hodgins, J. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar |

1Centre for Cancer Therapeutics, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

2Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, and

3Department of Surgery, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Address correspondence to: Michele Ardolino, 501 Smyth Road, Cancer Center, 3-328, Ottawa, Ontario K1H8M2, Canada. Phone: 613.737.8899 ext. 77257; Email: m.ardolino@uottawa.ca.

Authorship note: JJH and STK equally contributed to this manuscript.

Find articles by Khan, S. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

1Centre for Cancer Therapeutics, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

2Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, and

3Department of Surgery, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Address correspondence to: Michele Ardolino, 501 Smyth Road, Cancer Center, 3-328, Ottawa, Ontario K1H8M2, Canada. Phone: 613.737.8899 ext. 77257; Email: m.ardolino@uottawa.ca.

Authorship note: JJH and STK equally contributed to this manuscript.

Find articles by Park, M. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar

1Centre for Cancer Therapeutics, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

2Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, and

3Department of Surgery, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Address correspondence to: Michele Ardolino, 501 Smyth Road, Cancer Center, 3-328, Ottawa, Ontario K1H8M2, Canada. Phone: 613.737.8899 ext. 77257; Email: m.ardolino@uottawa.ca.

Authorship note: JJH and STK equally contributed to this manuscript.

Find articles by Auer, R. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar |

1Centre for Cancer Therapeutics, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

2Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, and

3Department of Surgery, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Address correspondence to: Michele Ardolino, 501 Smyth Road, Cancer Center, 3-328, Ottawa, Ontario K1H8M2, Canada. Phone: 613.737.8899 ext. 77257; Email: m.ardolino@uottawa.ca.

Authorship note: JJH and STK equally contributed to this manuscript.

Find articles by Ardolino, M. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar |

First published September 3, 2019 - More info

Published in Volume 129, Issue 9 on September 3, 2019
J Clin Invest. 2019;129(9):3499–3510. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI129338.
© 2019 American Society for Clinical Investigation
First published September 3, 2019 - Version history

Natural killer (NK) cells are innate cytotoxic lymphocytes involved in the surveillance and elimination of cancer. As we have learned more and more about the mechanisms NK cells employ to recognize and eliminate tumor cells, and how, in turn, cancer evades NK cell responses, we have gained a clear appreciation that NK cells can be harnessed in cancer immunotherapy. Here, we review the evidence for NK cells’ critical role in combating transformed and malignant cells, and how cancer immunotherapies potentiate NK cell responses for therapeutic purposes. We highlight cutting-edge immunotherapeutic strategies in preclinical and clinical development such as adoptive NK cell transfer, chimeric antigen receptor–expressing NK cells (CAR-NKs), bispecific and trispecific killer cell engagers (BiKEs and TriKEs), checkpoint blockade, and oncolytic virotherapy. Further, we describe the challenges that NK cells face (e.g., postsurgical dysfunction) that must be overcome by these therapeutic modalities to achieve cancer clearance.

Preview pages

Reset
Page preview
3500 Page 3499 Back

Continue reading with a subscription.

A subscription is required for you to read this article in full. If you are a subscriber, you may sign in to continue reading.

Already subscribed?

Click here to sign into your account.

Don't have a subscription?

Please select one of the subscription options, which includes a low-cost option just for this article.

At an institution or library?

If you are at an institution or library and believe you should have access, please check with your librarian or administrator (more information).

Problems?

Please try these troubleshooting tips.

  • Purchase this article
  • $10
  • Purchasing this article will give you full access for the calendar year.
  • Purchase article
  • Purchase Site Pass
  • $25
  • This will give you access to every article on the site for 24 hours.
  • Order site pass
  • Online subscription
  • $95
  • Individual online subscriptions give you full online access for the calendar year.
  • Individual online subscriptions ordered from September 1st on will receive access for the remainder of current year as well as for the full following year subscription term.
  • Order Online
  • Print subscription
  • $830
  • Individual print subscriptions give you the print journal and full online access for the year.
  • Print + Online
  • JCI This Month subscription
  • $125
  • JCI This Month is a 16- to 20-page overview of the articles published each month
  • Subscribing to JCI This Month also gives subscribers full online access for the calendar year.
  • *Price outside U.S. and Canada: $225.
  • JCI This Month + Online
Advertisement
Follow JCI:
Copyright © 2019 American Society for Clinical Investigation
ISSN: 0021-9738 (print), 1558-8238 (online)

Sign up for email alerts