The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of a gemcitabine plus platinum (GP) regimen combined with dendritic cell-cytokine induced killer (DC-CIK) immunotherapy on the recurrence and survival rate in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients (n=157) with stage III NSCLC that had received surgery were randomly divided into a control group and an observation group. The control group was administered with a GP regimen and the observation group received GP chemotherapy that was based on DC-CIK cell immunotherapy in addition to SC-CIK cell immunotherapy here. The two groups were followed up for 36 months and their postoperative cellular immune function, disease-free survival time, cumulative recurrence rate and cumulative survival rate was analyzed. The percentages of CD3+CD4+ T lymphocytes, natural killer cells and the CD4/CD8 ratio were identified to be significantly increased following treatment compared with those observed prior to treatment in the control and observation groups; conversely, the CD3+CD8+ T lymphocyte percentage decreased significantly (P<0.05). Furthermore, the results of the patients in the observation group were significantly better compared with the control group based on these indicators (P<0.05). The median disease-free survival time of patients in the observation group (28 months) was identified to be significantly longer than that of the control group (22 months; P<0.05), the three-year cumulative recurrence rate in the observation group (47.37%) was significantly lower than that of the control group (76.92%; P<0.05) and the three-year cumulative survival rate of the patients in the observation group (58.23%) was significantly higher than that of the control group patients (37.14%; P<0.05). In conclusion, the GP regimen combined with DC-CIK immunotherapy significantly improved the immune cell function in the postoperative NSCLC patients, in addition to reducing postoperative tumor recurrence and prolonging the survival time of patients with NSCLC.
Keywords: dendritic cell-cytokine induced killer cell therapy; gemcitabine plus platinum regimen; non-small cell lung cancer; recurrence rate; survival rate.