Targets of immunotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma: An update

Table 3 Adoptive cell therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma

Adoptive cell transfer
Agent	Type of study	Study details	Outcome
NK cells stimulated with IL-2[60]	Phase I trial	Patients with liver cirrhosis with HCC undergoing liver transplantation	Upregulation of peripheral NK cell cytotoxicity, no adverse events
CIK cell therapy as adjuvant to RFA[61]	A multicenter, randomized, open label phase III trial	230 HCC patients; CIK cell therapy as adjuvant to RFA, ethanol injection or curative resection	An improvement of 14 mo in recurrence free survival
Autologous TILs[62]	Phase I trial	15 patients with HCC post-resection	Successful expansion of TILs in 88% without any evidence of disease; No serious adverse events
GPC3 CAR-T[63]	Phase I trial	13 Chinese patients with r/r GPC3+ HCC	Feasible and safe for Chinese pts with r/r GPC3+ HCC; Promising antitumor potential when LDC is applied along with GPC3 CAR-T

NK: Natural killer; IL: Interleukin; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; CIK: Cytokine-induced killer; TIL: Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes; RFA: Radiofrequency ablation; CAR: Chimeric antigen receptor.